Tragedy in Syria and Turkey as earthquake survivors now face winter cold

Local residents carry an injured child from the rubble of a collapsed building following an earthquake in the town of Jandaris, in Syria’s northwestern city of Afrin (Picture: Getty)

A child is carried away from the wreckage of a collapsed building – a moment of hope amid the horror of two huge earthquakes that have claimed at least 3,500 lives in Turkey and Syria.

Residents turned rescuers, gently passed the injured girl through a gap in the tomb that was once her home.

It was one of dozens of blocks wrecked in a 200-mile area from Aleppo and Hama in Syria to Diyarbakir in Turkey.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it the country’s worst disaster since 1939, adding: ‘Because debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise.’

As Syria’s volunteer White Helmets service warned of trapped people being stranded in the winter cold, Britain last night sent 76 search and rescue experts.

Foreign secretary James Cleverly said: ‘We sadly have already seen many thousands of people die.’

People crowd over a fallen building to find survivors in Idlib, Syria (Picture: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)

The first 7.8-magnitude quake – centred near Gaziantep, south-east Turkey – shook buildings for a minute at 4.17am yesterday. A 6.7 aftershock ten minutes later caused more carnage. Then a second quake of 7.5 struck 80 miles away at Elbistan, Turkey. Tremors were felt in Egypt, Lebanon and Cyprus. Italy issued a tsunami warning.

As well as the rescued girl in Afrin – ravaged in Syria’s 11-year civil war and still held by rebels – videos showed a man in border town Aziz with a hurt child in his arms. Another showed the total collapse of a building in Sanliurfa, Turkey.

A girl is wrapped in a blanket after being rescued in Diyarbakir, Turkey (Picture: Reuters)

A 13th-century mosque was ruined in Maltaya province, where a 14-storey block of 28 flats also fell.

Huseyin Yayman, a politician in Hatay, Turkey, said his relatives were trapped in homes. ‘So many buildings are damaged,’ he told HaberTurk TV by phone. ‘People are on the streets. It’s raining, it’s winter.’ Mr Cleverly said there were no reports so far of UK fatalities. But former Chelsea, Everton and Newcastle United winger Christian Atsu, 31, was reported trapped.

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He joined the Turkish Super Lig club Hatayspor this season. Newcastle United tweeted: ‘Praying for some positive news, @ChristianAtsu20.’

UCL earth sciences expert Prof Bill McGuire said many structures were not designed to withstand such a quake, and those in Syria may have been weakened by war. Aftershocks will hamper rescuers and cause more deaths, he warned.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it the country’s worst disaster since 1939.