A dog has been rescued after being trapped under the rubble of the deadly earthquake in Turkey for 23 days.
Three weeks have passed since a series of devastating earthquakes battered southern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 50,000 people.
Thousands more are still unaccounted for, either dead or somehow still alive, trapped beneath the rocks and unable to escape.
In heart-wrenching footage, one lucky pooch called Alex, which looks like a collie-type breed, is hauled from a pit of crumbled concrete by a team of rescue workers.
They pass the surprisingly calm-looking pooch back to his family, who are clad in high-vis jackets and helmets, as the ecstatic owners fuss over him and shriek with joy at having their best friend back.
As well as the countless deaths, injuries and displacement of thousands of Turkish and Syrian residents as a result of the devastating tremors, the quake ripped open an enormous chasm in the earth's crust.
Entire fields were left blanketed with debris after a massive crack split the ground, while drone footage showed entire neighbourhoods flattened.
By mid-February, rescuers were still having some luck in their desperate search for survivors, but the likelihoods of victims surviving beyond March are minimal - which makes lucky boy Alex's story all the more astounding.
On February 11, a two-year-old boy was found alive after being buried in the rubble for 133 hours.
Aliye Dagli, two, was pulled from a collapsed building after surviving under the debris for more than five days.
In Turkey’s Hatay province, 35-year-old Ozlem Yilmaz and her six-year-old daughter Hatice were found alive in the ruins after 117 hours. And after 119 hours buried in Kahramanmaras, Kamil Can Agas, 16, asked his rescuers: “What day is it?”
A seven-month-old baby named Hamza was also rescued in Hatay after more than 140 hours.
Experts warned the odds of finding more survivors in the freezing cold is decreasing as time wears on, with a UN chief warning the death toll could double.
At the time, Martin Griffiths, the UN's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told Sky News: "I think it is difficult to estimate precisely [how many have died] as we need to get under the rubble but I'm sure it will double or more.
"That's terrifying. This is nature striking back in a really harsh way."
He added: "We haven't really begun to count the number of dead."
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake.
The main quake on February 6 has been followed by a staggering 2,109 powerful aftershocks, causing further damage and destruction.
It was the deadliest to affect Syria since the 1822 Aleppo earthquake, which was one of the strongest quakes ever recorded in the Levant and claimed the lives of approximately 20,000 people.
The country has continued to suffer from shakes in the weeks after the catastrophic quake on February 6, including a 5.6-magnitude tremor last Monday in Malatya province.
One person was reportedly killed, while 69 others are injured and an unknown number of buildings are said to have collapsed, according to Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) President Sezer.
