Turkey-Syria earthquake- latest: Desperation grips Syria as food supplies start to run out

Death toll passes 21,000 as hundreds still trapped under mountains of rubble

Syria earthquake: Child pulled from rubble of collapsed building

Reeling from the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Syrians are now facing starvation as food stocks are beginning to run out in the northwest of the country.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday it was running out of stocks and called to open more border crossings from Turkey after both countries were ravaged by the natural disaster.

“Northwest Syria, where 90 per cent of the population depends on humanitarian assistance, is a big concern. We have reached the people there, but we need to replenish our stocks,” Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director in the Middle East, Northern Africa and Eastern Europe, told reporters.

“We are running out of stocks and we need access to bring new stocks in. The border crossing is open now, but we need to get new border crossings open.”

The Independent is asking readers to donate to its appeal, with all funds raised going to the Disasters Emergency Committee, which brings together leading UK aid charities to help with the search and rescue effort and provide vital medicines, clean water and temporary accommodation for survivors.

Key Points

• Desperation in Syria as food stocks begin to run out in the northwest
• Death toll across Turkey and Syria crosses 21,000
• UN appeals for more ‘life-saving aid’ ‘desperately' needed by civilians
• US eases sanctions on Syria to allow earthquake aid
• ‘Time running out’ for survivors trapped beneath rubble
• Toddler pulled from ruins after 78 hours

[10 February 2023 09:21 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Syria's Assad visits Aleppo hospital in first reported trip to quake-hit area

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited the Aleppo University Hospital, the presidency said on Friday, his first reported trip to an earthquake-hit area.

The presidency shared images of Assad and his wife visiting people who were injured in the devastating earthquake which has killed thousands.

President Bashar al-Assad bombed the town of Marea (AFP via Getty Images)

[10 February 2023 09:49 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

In pictures: Homes turned to rubble in Turkey

People take in the site of a collapsed building following a powerful earthquake in the city of Kahramanmaras, Turkey.

(EPA)

(EPA)

(EPA)

[10 February 2023 10:51 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

10-day-old baby and mother saved after 90 hours trapped inside building wrecked by earthquake

A newborn baby and his mother have been rescued from the rubble in Turkey, around 90 hours after the first of the deadly earthquakes to strike the country and Syria.

The 10-day-old boy, named Yagiz, was retrieved from a wrecked building in the southern Hatay province, which has suffered terrible damage from the tremors.

The child being carefully taken out overnight, wrapped in a thermal blanket being carried to an ambulance. His mother was brought out on a stretcher. Both were taken to hospital for checks and treatment.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu tweeted that the rescue happened in the town of Samandag.

[10 February 2023 11:38 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

After 104 hours buried by Turkey earthquake, woman brought out alive

Rescuers pulled a woman alive out of the rubble of a collapsed building in Turkey on Friday, prompting cheers from onlookers about 104 hours after she was buried by the huge earthquake that wrought death and destruction across the region.

German emergency workers carefully lifted 40-year-old Zeynep Kahraman on a stretcher past shattered blocks of concrete and twisted metal in the town of Kirikhan into an ambulance.

“Now I believe in miracles,” Steven Bayer, the leader of the International Search and Rescue team said at the site.

“You can see the people crying and hugging each other. It’s such a huge relief that this woman under such conditions came out so fit. It’s an absolute miracle,” he said.

The combined death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in decades stood at 21,000 in southern Turkey and northwest Syria on Friday morning.

Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in bleak winter conditions, desperate for a multi-national relief effort to alleviate their suffering.

[10 February 2023 12:00 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

‘Oh my god’: British family’s baby monitor captures moment mother rescues child from cot as earthquake strikes

A British family feared for their lives as the deadly Turkey-Syria earthquake was caught on their baby monitor.

The family, from Hull, was on holiday in Turkey when the earthquake hit, killing more than 21,000 people across the two middle eastern nations.

Lemi Sanli, who provides security for Hull City owner Acun Ilicali, was safe in Istanbul, but his wife Victoria and their baby daughter, Katelyn, were in Adana, close to the epicentre of the quake.

He described seeing Katelyn’s cot shaking in footage captured on the baby monitor as his wife could be heard shouting “Oh my God” as the Frere Jacques nursery rhyme on the child’s music box continues.

[10 February 2023 12:18 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Watch live: Erdogan visits Turkey’s quake sites after death toll passes 20,000

Watch live as Turkey’s president visits earthquake wreckage sites after the death toll passes 20,000.

[10 February 2023 12:56 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

After 104 hours buried by Turkey earthquake, woman brought out alive

Rescuers pulled a woman alive out of the rubble of a collapsed building in Turkey on Friday, prompting cheers from onlookers 104 hours after she was buried by the huge earthquake that wrought death and destruction across the region.

“Now I believe in miracles,” rescue team leader Steven Bayer, said after crews carefully lifted 40-year-old Zeynep Kahraman on a stretcher past shattered blocks of concrete and twisted metal into an ambulance in the town of Kirikhan.

“You can see the people crying and hugging each other. It’s such a huge relief that this woman under such conditions came out so fit. It’s an absolute miracle,” he said.

Kahraman lay still, strapped into the stretcher with her arms across her chest, her eyes shielded from the sudden light by dark glasses. Her younger sister Zuebeyde looked on and hugged a worker from the German International Search and Rescue (ISAR) team.

“The woman pulled through. She didn’t give up,” rescue dog handler Tamara Reither said as crowds applauded.

“We are all so grateful that she is lying in this ambulance now. I have no words.”

Kahraman’s family told Reuters this week they had waited two days for rescuers to arrive after Monday’s quake.

The German workers made contact with Zeynep while she was still deep inside the rubble and kept her hydrated through a hose. At one point they helped Zuebeyde climb down a ladder close to her sister’s position to speak to her.

The combined death toll stood at 21,000 in southern Turkey and northwest Syria on Friday morning, on the fifth day after the deadliest quake in the region in decades .

Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in bleak winter conditions, desperate for a multi-national relief effort to alleviate their suffering.

[10 February 2023 13:16 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Syrian White Helmets chief slams U.N. earthquake response

The head of the Syrian “White Helmets” emergency response group accused the United Nations on Friday of failing to deliver appropriate humanitarian aid to rebel-held areas of the country ravaged by a major earthquake and its aftershocks.

Raed Al Saleh, who leads the group, said the area had not received any aid from the U.N. since Monday’s earthquake aimed at disaster response, saying that the six trucks that crossed the border into Syria on Thursday had been a regular shipment that had been delayed.

“The trucks that entered yesterday are a convoy that was scheduled to enter on Monday but was late due to the earthquake,” he told reporters via video link from Idlib. “Until now no aid has arrived to northwest Syria from the U.N. as a response to the earthquake.”

Saleh called the United Nations’ response “catastrophic” and said the body should “apologise to the Syrian people for the lack of help it provided”.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saleh’s allegations.

The International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency, said 14 trucks carrying humanitarian aid had crossed into Syria after departing from the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep earlier on Friday. The trucks, bound for rebel-held Idlib, carried items including electric heaters, tents, blankets, according to the IOM.

When asked whether the 14 trucks that crossed into Syria were part of a regular aid shipment and not linked to the earthquake response, IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon said the “pre-positioning” of aid was not the issue.

“The issue is that critically needed humanitarian aid that is suitable for people who have been displaced, including tents, blankets and other materials, are being delivered to northwest Syria at this time,” he said.

The White Helmets, known officially as Syria Civil Defence, have been credited with saving thousands of people in rebel-held areas hit by bombing by government and Russian forces in Syria‘s twelve-year-long civil war.

White Helmets members say they are neutral. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his backers, including Russia, describe them as tools of Western propaganda and of Islamist-led insurgents.

(RAMI AL SAYED/AFP via Getty Images)

[10 February 2023 13:40 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

In pictures: Roads of devastation in Turkey and Syria

A man walks among the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey.

Thousands of buildings collapsed in the devastating earthquakes, killing over 20,000 people.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

[10 February 2023 14:00 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

‘Where is the state?’ Erdogan faces anger of his people over Turkey earthquake relief

The president has admitted some issues with the speed of help arriving in devastated areas, but it has done little to calm survivors who have lost loved ones and their homes, writes Borzou Daragahi.