Turkey and Syria earthquake death toll tops 25,000

Death toll from Monday's deadly earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria has exceeded 25,000, authorities said on Saturday.

The death toll exceeded 25,000 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria- including 22,327 people who have died in Turkey and a reported 3,553 in Syria, where new figures have not been released since Friday raising the combined total to 25,880.

Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, with several powerful aftershocks across Turkey and Syria, ranks as the seventh-deadliest natural disaster this century, exceeding Japan’s 2011 tremor and tsunami, and approaching the 31,000 killed by a quake in neighbouring Iran in 2003.

A similarly powerful earthquake in northwest Turkey in 1999 killed more than 17,000 killed in 1999.

Some 24.4 million people in both countries have been affected, according to Turkish officials and the United Nations cites by Reuters, in an area spanning roughly 450 km (280 miles)

One of the rescued women, Menekse Tabak, 70, was swaddled in a blanket while rescuers carried her to a waiting ambulance in the province of Kahramanmaras. The other was an injured 55-year-old, identified as Masallah Cicek, who was extricated from the debris of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeast Turkey, the agency said.

A baby boy survived for128 hours under the rubble of a collapsed building in the quake affected Hatay province of Turkey providing renewed hopes for thousands of rescuers frantically looking for survivors, as hopes fade almost six days following the devastating tremors.

The 2 month old was immediately rushed to a local hospital for medical checks and is believed to be in good health.

A couple was also pulled out alive in Adiyaman, one of the hardest hit cities in the line of the quake.

A family of five was saved from the wreckage of its collapsed home in Gaziantep-parents, a son and two daughters, as miracles keep coming, despite tough conditions, including freezing temperatures, safety concerns and security challenges.

Sixty-seven people had been clawed from the rubble in the previous 24 hours. About 80,000 people were being treated in hospital, while 1.05 million left homeless by the quakes huddled in temporary shelters.