A miracle baby who was born under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Syria has devastatingly been made an orphan as her parents did not make it out alive.
Painful footage showed the baby girl taking its first breath surrounded by destruction after her mother went into labour during the quake.
The mammoth rescue operation took place in Jenderes, in the countryside of Afrin, northeast Syria. But the parents of the child, displaced tragically did not survive the earthquake's impact.
This was just one of thousands of rescue operations that unfolded as darkness, rain and cold enveloped the region of Turkey and Syria that was rocked by a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake early Monday.
Little is known about the newborn baby and its now-deceased family, aside from reports they had already been displaced by Syria’s brutal war from Deir Ezzor to Afrin, some seven hours away.
More than 5,000 people have now died and hundreds of buildings have been razed to the ground, in the aftermath of one of the deadliest natural disasters this century.
The initial quake was followed on Monday afternoon, local time, by another with a 7.7 magnitude.
Today, a third 5.7 earthquake struck eastern Turkey as rescuers were digging through rubble with their bare hands.
In a news briefing, Vice President Fuat Oktay of Turkey called the earthquake the "disaster of the century" as the death toll reached 5,000.
“My grandson is one-and-a-half years old. Please help them, please... They were on the 12th floor,” Imran Bahur said to AP while weeping by her destroyed apartment building in the Turkish city of Adana.
Dozens of countries have sent rescue teams to assist in the search, including the UK, but experts warned that the window for finding survivors was closing in.
Much of Syria still bears the scars of the conflict - with weak buildings, an economic crisis, multiple health crises and dwindling aid from international donors - so the war’s toll has also hindered relief efforts.
Ali Hussein Rashid, a 49-year-old relief worker told the Mirror from Aleppo: "People were all over the street at 3 am when it first hit. But we had no cherry pickers, no equipment, nothing to pick the people out of the rubble except our hands. It was shocking.
"It can’t be described. Over 50 buildings collapsed, with just five ambulances for the whole area."
Wailing children, sirens and the crunching of rubble beneath footsteps could all be heard over the phone from the scene of Monday's earthquake.
Mr Rashid described scenes - flattened buildings and hospitals full of bodies - which looked heartbreakingly similar to residents of Aleppo who have faced 11 years of bombardment.
"I thought I was going to die. Last night when I heard the rumbles, I thought it was jets in the sky. I was looking for jets in the sky and thought they were targeting buildings like before,” Dr Osama Sallom, Aleppo site manager with the Syrian American Medical Society told the Mirror.
While in Turkey, four people have been detained over "provocative" social media posts, with officers saying they found accounts that shared "provocative posts aiming to create fear and panic."
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared a week of national mourning and said: "Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts although the winter season, cold weather and the earthquake happening during the night makes things more difficult."
Jasmine Khaled Kanjo, a 35-year-old teacher, from Aleppo pleaded to the Mirror: "How can the people of Britain help us? We need your help."
The Syrian American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria and southern Turkey, said in a statement that its facilities are “overwhelmed with patients filling the hallways” and called urgently for “trauma supplies and a comprehensive emergency response to save lives and treat the injured.”
There was a moment of hope amid the horror as Ghana international football player and ex-Chelsea player Christian Atsu was found alive on Tuesday after being buried under rubble in Turkey.
But Jamal Balî, 35, an activist from Kobani in northern Syria said to the Mirror it was worse than bombs: "You can try and hide and protect yourself in some houses or something, but there is no place to hide from an earthquake.
"You could be in danger anywhere. Anything could collapse on you. It's not like you're facing an army or an enemy, you are under threat at any second."
The World Health Organisation has warned that death toll numbers are likely to increase as much as eight times.
