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So far, over 36,000 people have died after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
The clock is ticking to find survivors – but miracles still happen.
– If my baby hadn’t been strong enough to handle this, I wouldn’t have been either, says Necla Camuz, who with her newborn baby was rescued after four days to the BBC.
A week has passed since the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. The latest death toll shows that more than 36,000 people have died – but in the midst of all the tragedy, the improbable still happens.
At the latest on Monday morning, a 70-year-old woman who was trapped in a three-story building in Hatay in Turkey was rescued. The woman was buried under rubble for 178 hours, reports Al Jazeera.
Mother and newborn baby were rescued from the rubble
Even the BBC has reported on a “miraculous rescue”.
Mother of two Necla Camuz was feeding her 10-day-old son in the family’s apartment in Hatay when the roof and walls suddenly collapsed.
– The room shook and the building moved. When it was over, I didn’t realize I had fallen down a floor. I called out for my husband and my second son, but I didn’t get an answer, says Necla Camuz BBC.
It was an overturned wardrobe that saved Necla Camuz from being crushed by a concrete slab. And for four days Necla Camuz lay there, under the wardrobe, with the baby on her chest.
Pinched, she managed to feed the baby
Necla Camuz describes that she could not see, but that she could hear the baby – whom after the rescue she chose to name Yagiz, which means brave – breathing.
Although they were trapped, she managed to feed Yagiz, but she herself had to manage without both water and food. In sheer desperation, she tried to drink her own breast milk, without success.
It wasn’t until 90 hours later that she heard the sound of dogs barking. In the end, the emergency services were able to locate and help the mother and child out of the crowd.
When Necla Camuz then arrived at the hospital, she met family who told her that Necla Camuz’s husband and three-year-old son had also been rescued, only hours earlier.
She now describes that she is trying to process what the family has been through.
– If my baby hadn’t been strong enough to handle this, I wouldn’t have been either. I am very happy that he is a newborn baby and will not remember anything, she tells the newspaper.
Hatay among the worst affected province
The earthquake struck on February 6 at 04:17 local time, with a magnitude of 7.8. According to Turkish media, it should have had its epicenter at a depth of seven kilometers, and occurred three kilometers outside the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria.
A large number of aftershocks have followed, over 145 were recorded in the first two days alone.
The worst hit is southern Turkey, where sometimes the province of Hatay.
According to the WHO, close to 26 million people are affected by the disaster. Several countries have reached out to help, including Ukraine, Greece and Sweden.
So far, there is no information that Swedes will be among the dead, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.