Turkey-Syria earthquake: death toll passes 21,000 in ‘disaster of the century’
- Death toll rises in Turkey and Syria as chances of finding many more survivors shrinks
- It surpasses the more than 17,000 killed in the 1999 quake that hit northwest Turkey
Emergency crews made a series of dramatic rescues on Friday, four days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 21,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
In the Turkish port city of Iskenderun, rescuers said six people were pulled from a collapsed building after spending 101 hours beneath the rubble.
The six people, all relatives, were helped to survive by huddling together in a small pocket left within the collapsed structure, said Murat Baygul, a search and rescue worker.
Earlier, a 10-year-old boy and his mother were saved in the Samandag district of Hatay province after 90 hours. Also in Hatay, a seven-year-old girl named Asya Donmez was rescued after 95 hours and taken to hospital.
But hopes were fading that many more would be found alive in the ruins of thousands of collapsed buildings in towns and cities across the region.
Cold, hunger and despair gripped hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by Monday’s earthquake, which Turkey’s president declared “the disaster of the century”.