Turkey and Syria earthquake – latest: Number of dead passes 37,000; Qatar sends World Cup cabins

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has agreed for two more border crossings to be opened with Turkey into rebel-held Syria for the delivery of United Nations aid.

Gunmen storm Syrian hospital caring for a baby born in the rubble

Gunmen have stormed a hospital in north Syria where a baby girl is being cared for after being born under the rubble of her family’s collapsed home, an official has said.Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said the attackers tracked down the clinic’s director and beat him up, telling local police officers they were going after him for firing their friend.

Reports on social media suggested the intruders launched the attack in an attempt to kidnap the infant, but the official denied this was the case.

The girl, who has been named Aya – the Arabic word meaning a sign from God, has been at the hospital since the earthquake hit Turkey and Syria last week.

The official said the hospital’s director had suspected that a nurse who was taking pictures of Aya was planning to kidnap her, and kicked him out of the hospital.

The nurse returned hours later, accompanied by the gunmen who launched the attack.

Aya’s mother, father, and four siblings died in the disaster, and she has been closely monitored since her birth, with people from around the world offering to help her.

However, several people have shown up falsely claiming to be her relatives, prompting local policemen to guard her.

Rescue workers in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis discovered Aya more than 10 hours after the quake hit, buried under the concrete, and still connected by her umbilical cord to her mother.

Man rescued from the wreckage in Turkey after eight days

Astonishing news is still being reported from earthquake-hit parts of Turkey.

In the latest, it was claimed a man had been rescued alive from rubble in the southern Hatay province after more than eight days trapped.

He was stuck under the wreckage of a building for a total of 203 hours.

The man is the latest to be rescued in Turkey, alongside a teenager and two brothers who were pulled alive from the rubble early on Tuesday.

Despite the news of survivors, those in Turkey and Syria believe the window for finding people alive is rapidly closing more than a week on.

‘Real concern’ children are falling ill as fears rise of deadly waterborne diseases

There is a “real concern” that children are already falling ill in the aftermath of deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

As we reported yesterday, fears are rising that deadly waterborne diseases could spread in the wake of the tragedy, likely to particularly affect children.

Thousands of people are without safe drinking water and sanitation facilities – such as running water and toilets – due to the tremors.

This has increased the risk of diseases such as cholera, which was already at high-risk in northwest Syria.

Randa Ghazy, of Save the Children International, said parents have already reported that children are vomiting, raising concerns further.

She said: “I spoke to parents in the areas around Antakya who are sleeping in cars and community centres, they told me that their children are vomiting, so there’s a real concern that some children are already falling ill.”

Makeshift homes set up in rebel-held Syria

We’ve been reporting over the past week about people who were displaced by the series of powerful earthquakes being housed in so-called “tent cities” in parts of southern Turkey.

There is now a similar scene in opposition-held Syria, which has faced difficulties getting hold of international aid due to the 12-year war.

Below, survivors in the town of Harem are seen building temporary homes in a schoolyard where displaced people have gathered.

‘They need miracles to survive’: Turkish medic describes aftermath of devastating quake

A surgeon treating the “shocking” injuries of people crushed in the earthquakes has described the last week as the “hardest days” in his career.

Noyan Dirlik, a 33-year-old from Alanya, Turkey, works as an orthopaedic surgeon at Alanya Training and Research Hospital, a city a few hundred miles west of the disaster zone in Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

The hospital has had to stop elective surgeries to deal with an influx of earthquake patients.

Dr Dirlik said those crushed by debris frequently require limb amputations and removals of dead tissue, often needing “miracles to survive”.

“Patients continually come in – it’s getting worse,” he said. “I’m planning to stay strong, but it is near impossible because hearing children crying, mothers crying, because they all lost their relatives – it’s very hard.

“They are all broken spiritually, they need miracles to survive.

“You can’t ask people,’how are you?’, and you can’t question them because they are not OK.”

Qatar sends 10,000 World Cup mobile homes to earthquake zone

Qatar will send thousands of cabins from last year’s World Cup to provide shelter for survivors of the Turkish earthquakes, the country said today.

The Gulf nation said it had always planned to donate the mobile homes.

They were needed to help house some of the 1.4 million fans who descended on the small country during football’s biggest tournament.

An initial batch of 350 structures was shipped out on Sunday, with more expected to leave in the coming days.

Tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, leaving millions homeless when powerful earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria.

As shelters filled up in the days after the quake many were forced to sleep outside in wet, wintry weather.

Qatar and other wealthy Gulf countries have joined the global effort to send rescuers and aid to the stricken region.

The United Arab Emirates has pledged $100m for relief efforts. Saudi Arabia has dispatched eight planes loaded with supplies to Turkey and Syria.

Scale of damage illustrated by satellite images

Damien Symon, a geo-intelligence expert, has shared an animation displaying in stark detail the destruction in the aftermath of this tragedy.

The animation was produced using satellite images shared by Maxar, illustrating how the Iskenderun Port in Turkey had been devastated by the tremors.

This gif made from Maxar images, shows the scale of damage at Iskenderun Port after the #TurkeyEarthquake #Deprem, containers & cranes can be seen burnt, destroyed & toppled over,
an estimated US$600+ million loss
https://t.co/dfaTQzeEVP pic.twitter.com/lyNOZGvTab
— Damien Symon (@detresfa_) February 14, 2023

Photographs clearly show containers and cranes fallen to the side, destroyed and even burnt in the Mediterranean harbour.

‘We will not return’: Thousands flee earthquake-stricken Turkey in aftermath of tragedy

Upwards of 158,000 people have fled parts of southern Turkey devastated by the earthquakes in the last eight days.

Riza Atahan, from the province of Hatay, put his wife and daughter on a bus taking them to safety 186 miles away, then returned to his damaged home to guard their belongings.

“I do not have a lot of expectation from this life but the lives of our children are important,” he said, as his family headed to a student dormitory – emergency accommodation arranged by the government.

He hopes to spare them the hardship facing Hatay in the next months.

Thousands of people also fled in panic in the immediate aftermath of the tremors, causing gridlocked traffic as people desperately searched for passable roads.

Those leaving now gather at a plot of land on the side of the main road leading into Antakya.

Security officials take their names and ask them where they want to go, then assign them to buses taking them to provinces all over Turkey, from Istanbul, a 12-hour drive north west, to Hakkari, a 12-hour drive east near the border with Iraq.

“Our house collapsed completely. Several of our relatives died, there are still ones under the rubble,” he said.

“My family went to Isparta, I am going there too, we will not return to Hatay.”

Our teammates who did not leave the wreckage field, even to sleep. #earthquake pic.twitter.com/buE7W0QoJj
— IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation (@IHHen) February 13, 2023