- After 36 hours two children were rescued.
- At least 1,220 people have died in Idlib governorate, a rebel-controlled area in northern Syria.
- The hope of finding more families decreases with each hour.
Earthquake: Two children were rescued more than 36 hours after the quake trapped their family as they slept in the wreckage of their home in northern Syria.
“Get me out of here, I’ll do anything for you,” the older child whispers to rescuers who are seen on video squatting in the rubble of the children’s home in Besnaya-Bseineh, a small village in Haram, Syria.
“I’ll be your servant,” she adds, as a rescuer replies, “No, no.”
The girl’s name is Mariam, and she softly touches the hair on her younger sibling’s head as they lie squeezed together in what could be the remains of their bed. She can move her arm enough to shield her sibling’s face from the dust.
According to their father, the younger child’s name is Ilaaf, which means “protection” in Islamic.
Mustafa Zuhir Al-Sayed claims his wife and three children were sleeping in the early hours of Monday when the earth shook with a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, the most powerful to strike the region in more than a century of records.
“We felt the ground shaking … and rubble began falling over our head, and we stayed two days under the rubble,” he said. “We went through, a feeling, a feeling I hope no one has to feel.”
Pinned under rubble, Al-Sayed said his family recited the Quran and prayed out loud that someone would find them.
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“People heard us, and we were rescued – me, my wife, and the children. Thank God, we are all alive and we thank those who rescued us,” he said.
The video shows locals cheering as Mariam and Ilaaf are carried from the rubble wrapped in blankets. The children were taken to the hospital, where they’re receiving medical care.
Hope of finding more families decreases with each hour amid frigid temperatures that have made survival difficult even for those who have managed to flee the crumbling structures.
According to the Syrian Civil Defense, a humanitarian aid group better known as the “White Helmets,” at least 1,220 people have died in Idlib governorate, a rebel-controlled area in northern Syria.
The group said Tuesday that the number of dead and injured is “expected to rise significantly due to the presence of hundreds of families under the rubble.”
At least 1,280 deaths have been confirmed in government-controlled areas of Syria, according to state-run media, bringing the total Syrian toll to more than 2,500.
The total number of deaths from the earthquake across the Turkey-Syria border has risen to more than 9,400, with humanitarian groups warning that the figure is likely to grow further.
Aid is slowly reaching people in need, but even before the earthquake, the United Nations estimated that 70% of Syria’s population required humanitarian assistance.
The hope of finding more families decreases with each hour amid frigid temperatures that have made survival difficult even for those who have managed to flee the crumbling structures.
According to the Syrian Civil Defense, a humanitarian aid group better known as the “White Helmets,” at least 1,220 people have died in Idlib governorate, a rebel-controlled area in northern Syria.
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