White Helmets tell of harrowing scenes as rescuers pull bodies from rubble

The charity is one of the few groups on the ground in rebel-held areas of Syria

White Helmets volunteers carry a casualty pulled from the rubble in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province. AFP

Follow the latest news on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Siblings holding hands under mangled concrete blocks; families lying crushed under collapsed buildings; desperate parents squeezing through rubble to reach their children.

White Helmets volunteers told The National that the situation on the ground in north-west Syria is “difficult as hell.”

“We pulled out 1,300 bodies in the last 48 hours alone,” Ismayil Al Abdallah, who is involved in the rescue operations in Syria's Idlib province, told The National by phone.

The organisation has so far managed to rescue more than 3,000 people from under the rubble, but cannot tell how many bodies may lie beneath it.

The White Helmets is among the few humanitarian groups involved in rescue in rebel-held areas of Syria.

The Assad regime and many foreign governments will not provide aid to these areas. The death toll from the earthquake that hit near the border with Turkey has crossed 11,000 and is expected to continue to rise.

'Finding people alive keeps us going'

Mr Abdulla said about 2,000 White Helmet volunteers are working round the clock at roughly 100 different sites across north-west Syria, amid freezing temperatures in many areas.

“Rescue operations are still ongoing. We do not know when to stop” he said, exhausted after days on his feet.

“We are still finding people alive and waiting to be rescued.

“Even this morning we found a young man under the rubble, more than 48 hours after the earthquake. This keeps us going.”

War has raged in Syria since 2011, but even after gassings and barrel bombs, many of the volunteers have not seen this scale of death and destruction.

“This is unimaginable,” said Mr Abdallah, one of the original volunteers in 2012.

“That was different. We had to deal with maybe one bombed building a day. Now, we are looking at hundreds of collapsed buildings all over north-west Syria.

The Syrian Civil Defence team, also known as The White Helmets, lead rescue and relief operations in north-west Syria. Photo: White Helmets

One of the worst affected areas is Jindires, in the district of Afrin.

“The whole town is reduced to rubble. There are several streets where rows of buildings have collapsed at once. Whole families got wiped out,” he said.

“One of our difficulties is that we have never handled a natural disaster before.”

Digging with bare hands

Mr Abdalla said his team is running desperately short of heavy equipment.

“We are digging with our bare hands. We are using everything around us like steel bars and iron rods to reach people.”

The team, he said, is currently operating with just 10 pieces of heavy equipment, such as diggers, rotating them among the most affected sites.

“We need more cranes and bulldozers. We need generators, solar lamps and diesel to work during the night,” he said.

“Our biggest fear now is that time is running short. We have to scale up the rescue. There are still many more lives to be saved. Those rescued needs clothes, tents, food, medicines and hygiene kits. It is a catastrophe.”

He said no international organisations or volunteers have reached out to help his team.

“But we cannot wait. There are so many lives to be saved.”

The brother of a survivor Gokhan Ugurlu, 35, who was pulled out of the rubble in Hatay, Turkey, reacts as a rescuer looks on. Reuters

A woman walks past flattened buildings in a street in Hatay province, Turkey. Reuters

A member of the army stands amid rubble in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

A man reacts while sitting outside a tent of a temporary accommodation centre set up on a football pitch in Gaziantep, Turkey. Reuters

Earthquake survivors walk on a street in Hatay, Turkey. Reuters

A White Helmets volunteer holds a rescued cat in the rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

A Syrian boy, who lost his family in the deadly earthquake, stands amid the rubble of his family home in Jindayris. AFP

Rescuers sit by a bonfire in Hatay, Turkey. AFP

A Turkish soldier walks among destroyed buildings in Hatay. AFP

Relatives of Palestinian doctor Yusuf Darabeh, who died when the earthquake hit Turkey, comfort each other. AP Photo

People stand by a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. AP Photo

A child, injured in the earthquake, is treated at hospital in Bab Al Hawah, Syria. AP Photo

Vehicles containing aid from Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) on the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Syria border. Reuters

Rescuers carry Muhammed Alkanaas, 12, to an ambulance after five days under the rubble in Antakya, Turkey. AP

Romanian firefighters load a Turkey-bound train with emergency aid near Bucharest. AP

Collapsed buildings in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

Abdulkerim Nano, 67, is rescued after five days under the rubble in in Kahramanmaras, Turkey

A Turkish rescue worker checks a collapsed building in Adiyaman. AP

Rescuers in Adiyaman, Turkey. AP

A resident in front of his collapsed building in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP

Syrian refugees shelter in a public market in the Islahiye district of Gaziantep, Turkey. AP

A family wait for the bodies of their relatives to be recovered in Antakya, Turkey. AP

A woman plays with a sniffer dog in Antakya, Turkey. AP

Collapsed buildings in Antakya, Turkey. AP

A Syrian woman takes care of her nephew Hasan Goayid, eight, in Islahiye district, Gaziantep. AP

A Syrian child in a tent in the Islahiye district. AP

Collapsed buildings in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras. AFP

Emirati rescuers sift through the rubble of a collapsed building in the regime-controlled town of Jableh, northwest of the Syrian capital. AFP

Volunteers at the Emirates Red Crescent 'Bridges of Goodness' campaign at the South Hall, Dubai Exhibition Centre at Expo City. Leslie Pableo for The National

Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, in Maras, Turkey. Reuters

Rescuers give water to a dog after a rescue operation in Hatay, southern Turkey. AP

A deadly earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6. EPA

Fissures from the earthquake have crumpled the highway near Islahiyeh in Southern Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National

A Kurdish charity's aid convoy enters Syria through the Bab Al Salama crossing with Turkey, in the northern province of Aleppo. AFP

A rescuer with a sniffer dog searches in a destroyed building in Antakya, southern Turkey. AFP

A makeshift camp erected in a stadium in the city of Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey. EPA

A woman mourns Turkish Cypriot victims of the earthquake, during a funeral procession in the Turkish occupied area in north-east coastal city of Famagusta, Cyprus. AP

Rescuers carry survivor Rabia Ofkeli, 27, from the rubble in Hatay, southern Turkey. Reuters

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad visits Aleppo university hospital. Reuters

Members of the Swiss rescue team with a four-month-old girl, Abir, who was pulled out from the rubble in Antakya. AFP

Survivors at a hospital in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

Members of the White Helmets during the fifth day of rescue operations in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

Indonesian Muslims perform a prayer for the victims at Istiqlal grand mosque in Jakarta. EPA

Emergency personnel conduct a rescue operation to save Melda, 16, from beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey. AFP

The earthquake caused a railbed overpass to collapse in Nurdagi, Turkey. AFP

A framed picture on the cracked wall of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, south-eastern Turkey. EPA

A coastal area of Iskenderun, Turkey, was flooded after the quake. Reuters

A sheet of paper lies among the rubble in Elbistan. AP

Relief supplies destined for earthquake survivors in Turkey, at a warehouse in Schoenefeld, near Berlin, Germany. AP

Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, three days after the earthquake struck. AFP

Rescuers with a child pulled out from under the rubble. Reuters

Rescuers rest on top of rubble as an aircraft drops water over a fire at the port in the quake-stricken town of Iskenderun. Reuters

A rescue worker in Kahramanmaras, three days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck south-east Turkey. AFP

People try to pull out a dog trapped beneath the rubble in Iskenderun, Turkey. Reuters

Lorries carrying humanitarian aid wait at Bab Al Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border. Reuters

Syrians warm up by a fire outside a makeshift tent near the rebel-held town of Jindayris in Syria. AFP

A dam on the Orontes river in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province collapsed after the quake, flooding the neighbourhood. AFP

The sails of the Sydney Opera House lit with a black ribbon in remembrance and mourning of the earthquake victims. Getty

Smoke billows amid an expanse of collapsed and damaged buildings in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Reuters

Dogs of the German International Search and Rescue team rest between operations in Kirikhan, Turkey. Reuters

White Helmets volunteers rescue a child trapped beneath the rubble in Jandaris, Syria. Reuters

People gather to collect food and humanitarian aid in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras, south-east Turkey. EPA

The statue of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, is surrounded by damaged buildings in Adiyaman province. AP

A plane carrying humanitarian air sent for earthquake survivors lands in Damascus. Mahmoud Rida / The National

Motorway fractured by earthquake causes car crash near Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Matt Kynaston / The National

A tent camp has been set up at a stadium in south-eastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras to shelter families whose homes were destroyed in the quake. AFP

A displaced Syrian woman rests under a tree in a field on the outskirts of the rebel-held town of Jindayris. AFP