Heartrending scenes of a newborn plucked alive from the rubble and a broken father clutching his dead daughter's hand have laid bare the human cost of violent earthquakes in Syria and Turkey that by Wednesday had claimed 8,300 lives.
File photo shows a rescue team working on a collapsed building, following an earthquake in Antakya, Turkey February 6, 2023. REUTERS/ Umit Bektas
Officially, the death toll from the disaster now stands at 8,364. But that could yet double if the worst fears of experts are realized. He sat on the freezing rubble, too grief-stricken to speak, refusing to let go of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak's hand as her body lay lifeless among the slabs of concrete and strands of twisted rebar.Many have taken refuge from relentless aftershocks, cold rain and snow in mosques, schools and even bus shelters -- burning debris to stay alive."I can't get my brother back from the ruins. I can't get my nephew back. Look around here.
Sixty-one-year-old resident Celal Deniz said the police had to intervene when impatient crowds waiting for rescue teams "revolted." In the rebel-controlled town of Jindayris, even the joy of rescuing a newborn baby was tainted with sadness."We heard a voice while we were digging," Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative, told AFP.
A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads -- some of them damaged by the quake -- almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometers in some regions.
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