Baby born under Syria earthquake rubble but mother and father die

Video shows man carrying naked newborn, surrounded by destroyed buildings

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A child has been born under rubble in north-western Syria after Monday's earthquake.

Footage circulating on social media showed the newborn, naked in the freezing winter, surrounded by destroyed buildings.

A man carried her away from her birthplace, where her mother died. The father is also reported to have died.

The incident took place in Jenderes, a town near the north-western city of Afrin, which is believed to be mostly destroyed in the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday.

The death toll across both countries has surpassed 5,000. The UN believes thousands of children may have been killed as the number of casualties continues to rise.

In Syria's north-west, which remains out of government control, resources are sparse and infrastructure weak. Rescue teams and civilians have had to extract people from under the rubble by hand in the absence of heavy equipment and machinery.

“Come, come, don't be afraid,” a White Helmets rescuer told one child who was crying underneath the rubble as he reached out to her, captured on video.

“She's OK, she's OK,” the rescuer told others during the operation, which appeared to be taking place at night lit only by a torch.

“A child rescued from under the rubble, and a family trapped on the third floor of their house after parts of it collapsed in Afrin in the northern Aleppo countryside after midnight last night,” the White Helmets wrote on Twitter.

“Hundreds” more families are still trapped under rubble, as rescue operations continued, the group said.

Updated: February 08, 2023, 3:26 AM