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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Rachel Hagan

Moment girl, 10, rescued after SIX DAYS trapped under Turkey earthquake rubble

Rescuers pulled a 10-year-old girl from the rubble of a collapsed building in south-eastern Turkey, six days after twin earthquakes devastated the region.

Video released by the Istanbul municipality showed rescuers pulling the girl through a hole in a floor of a damaged building, in Hatay, before carrying her out on a stretcher from where she had been buried for 147 hours.

Also in central Hatay, a man and his five-year-old daughter Emira were recovered alive from a destroyed building.

Video released by the Kocaeli Municipality on Sunday showed rescuers talking to Emira and her father while they were still trapped under debris.

“Hello beautiful girl, we are here to take you out,” one of the rescuers said.

Video posted on social media showed Habib pumping his fist in the air, yelling “God is greatest”, to the cheers of rescuers below as he was finally winched out by machine

The death toll from the two huge earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria climbed to 33,000 on Sunday, with the United Nations warning that the final number may double.

Officials and medics said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria bringing the confirmed total to 33,179.

While the death toll is much larger in Turkey, Syria has been largely left alone to deal with the crisis on top of the devastation from 11 year of war.

Oubadah Alwan, a spokesperson for the Syria Civil Defence told the BBC the situation in Syria was “very difficult” and the catastrophe the country now faces could have “definitely been avoided if we had some help earlier on.”

Mr Alwan said: "Disappointment and abandonment is definitely a general feeling. We’re seven days into the earthquake. Our organisation has been calling for help, for manpower, for rescue equipment and in the first couple of days, we were just ignored and were left to deal with the situation on our own.

"Machines were breaking down, volunteers were digging people out with their own hands.

"The catastrophe at this scale could have definitely been avoided if we had some help earlier on.”

On Sunday, the German government announced it wants to temporarily ease visa restrictions for survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria who have close family ties to Germany if they are facing homelessness or were injured.

German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, tweeted on Saturday: “It’s about helping in times of need. We want to make it possible for Turkish or Syrian families in Germany to bring close relatives from the disaster region.

“They can find shelter with us and receive medical treatment. With regular visas, which are issued quickly and are valid for three months.”

However people must still be able to present a valid passport, which some have said may prove to be an obstacle for people whose belongings are crushed under rubble.

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