In Syria, a little girl was found alive under the rubble with her little brother, also alive, whom she protected for 17 hours.
A few days after the terrible earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, rescue operations continue to try to find survivors under the rubble. With a magnitude of 7.4, the earthquake would have killed more than 16,000 people in the two countries to date, including nearly 13,000 in Turkey.
If horror images reach us most often, here is a video that will give us heartache. This is a rescue video in which a 7-year-old girl was found alive under the rubble 17 hours after the earthquake.
We see the little girl placing her hand on the head of her little brother, also alive, in order to protect him from the rubble.
Fortunately, the two children were rescued from the rubble safe and sound according to a UN representative, Mohammad Safa, who tweeted: “The 7-year-old girl who kept her hand on her little brother’s head for 5 p.m. under the rubble was saved”.
A bright spot in what looks like a real nightmare for thousands of Turkish and Syrian families.
A major disaster far from over
The terrible earthquake seriously affected the South-East of Turkey, mainly the province of Hayat, as well as the North of Syria. The European Union assured that it would soon launch emergency humanitarian aid in the region.
The other problematic of this earthquake is political. Southeast Turkey has become home to millions of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war while northwest Syria is home to quake-hit areas occupied by Syrian rebels. The UN has called for “putting politics aside” in order to facilitate access to these sensitive areas and help as many people as possible.
For its part, the WHO fears a major health crisis in the region which would be a disastrous side effect of the earthquake. In Syria, the authorities particularly fear the spread of the cholera epidemic which has reappeared, but also respiratory diseases and psychological and physical trauma.
