Newborn baby pulled alive from Syria earthquake rubble

A newborn baby girl has been pulled alive from the rubble of a home in northern Syria, after relatives found her still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother, who died in Monday’s massive earthquake.

The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were all killed when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Syria and neighbouring Turkey flattened the family home in the rebel-held town of Jindayris, said relative Khalil al-Suwadi.

“We heard a voice while we were digging,” Suwadi told AFP on Tuesday.

“We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.” 

Video of the rescue went viral on social media.

The footage shows a man sprinting from the rubble of a collapsed four-storey building clutching a tiny baby covered in dust.

A second man runs towards the first, carrying a blanket to try to warm the newborn in the sub-zero temperatures, while a third screams for a car to take her to hospital.

The baby was taken for treatment in the nearby town of Afrin, while family members spent the next several hours recovering the bodies of her father, Abdullah, mother Afraa, four siblings and an aunt.

Their bodies were laid out on the floor of an adjacent relative’s home ahead of a joint funeral that was held on Tuesday.

In the dimly lit room, Suwadi stared at the lifeless corpses and listed their names.

“We are displaced from [the government-held eastern city of] Deir Ezzor. Abdullah is my cousin and I am married to his sister,” he said.

The family home was one of about 50 in Jindayris that were flattened by the earthquake, an AFP correspondent reported.

Across Syria, more than 1,600 people were killed, in addition to the more than 3,400 killed in Turkey, authorities said.