The strongest earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have left behind massive trails of destruction and tragic stories. In one such case, a baby girl was born under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Syria but was left an orphan as her parents could not come out alive, UK-based Mirror reported on Tuesday. The mother had gone into labour during the quake. She and her husband both died in the earthquake, which has killed over 5,000 in Turkey and Syria.
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Painful footage showed the baby girl taking its first breath surrounded by destruction, the report said, adding that little was known about the newborn baby and its now-deceased family.
Turkey was struck by a strong earthquake in the early hours of Monday. Within the next 12 hours, two more powerful earthquakes hit the country extending the damage caused by the first one. A long lane of fallen buildings and ripped roads were seen in Turkey and Syria after the earthquakes. As per the latest inputs, the death toll had crossed 5,000 in both countries, the highest since 1999.
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Massive search and rescue operations are underway to save people trapped under the rubble. Two children trapped beneath the rubble were today discovered in separate rescue operations in two Syrian cities - Aleppo and Idlib, according to BBC. As per reports, people trapped in damaged buildings were crying for help in the Hatay province, one of the worst-hit regions in Syria. In Hatay, footage showed a resident searching in the rubble. He believed someone was alive underneath.
According to BBC, a woman's voice was heard from underneath: "As you see, there is a dead body here. He is dead and nobody has removed him." She cried again, and then banged on metal trying to hold the man's attention. But there was nothing he alone can do as the entire home had collapsed and it would take machinery to lift the ruins, the report said.
In another heartbreaking scene, a father was seen weeping over the body of an infant in Qatma, Syria. The video footage was shared by CNN.
Today, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 quake-hit provinces. He called the situation a historic disaster and the worst earthquake to hit Turkey since 1939.
On Monday, around 4:15 am local time, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck south-central Turkey near the Syrian border. Just 11 minutes later, it was followed by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. The largest aftershock was of magnitude 7.5. All these events occurred within the East Anatolian fault system, the US Geological Survey said.
Though an earthquake of this magnitude is rare anywhere in the world, this type of event is generally expected on long, plate-boundary strike-slip faults. USGS scientist David Wald said it was difficult to watch this tragedy unfold, "especially since we have known for a long time about how poorly the buildings in the region tend to behave in earthquakes." "An earthquake this size has the potential to be damaging anywhere in the world, but many structures in this region are particularly vulnerable."
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