Syrian toddler pulled from rubble of home after earthquake shatters her family

A Syrian toddler has been rescued from the rubble of her home destroyed by the earthquake that killed her mother and two siblings and crippled her father.

Raghad Ismail was rushed to safety in the arms of a rescue worker after being pulled from the ruins unscathed in the Syrian city of Azaz at daybreak on Monday.

An uncle looking after her said her two siblings died along with her mother, who was pregnant as the 18-month-old girl ate a piece of bread as she sat on cushions on the ground under a blanket later in the day, a heater helping shield her from the winter cold.

“The father is feared to have his back broken, his young daughter is fine. His pregnant wife, his five-year-old daughter and his four-year-old son have all been killed,” the uncle who gave his name as Abu Hussam told Reuters.

Abu Hussam said another family in the building, a mother and three children, had been rescued.Ismail’s family were displaced from the town of Morek during Syria’s 11-year-long war.

Azaz, a town near the Turkish border, is held by the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

The earthquake has killed more than 430 people in rebel-held areas of Syria, in addition to at least 530 people in government-held parts of the country and more than 1,600 in Turkey.

Footage posted online showed builidings in the town start to collapse as the earthquake hit with people running in panic from falling masonry.

Across the border in Turkey, rescue teams were searching through the wreckage of the state hospital in Iskenderun.

As darkness fell, a wounded person was pulled out of the rubble and taken away on a stretcher. The rescuers climbed up the enormous pile of debris that was once the part of the Iskenderun Hospital that provided intensive care. They were hopeful of finding more survivors, despite the rain and cold. Generators provided the power for lights.

Relatives gathered, searching for news of their loved ones.

“We have a patient who was taken into surgery but we don’t know what happened,” said Tulin, a woman in her 30s, standing outside the hospital, wiping away tears and praying. “God help us. We already lost three relatives today, including my aunt. My uncle is in there... God forbid we lose him too.”

In the part of the hospital still standing, health workers were doing their best to tend to injured people amid chaotic scenes. With insufficient ambulances, people came in private cars, and dozens lay on mats on the floor by the hospital entrance.

International rescue teams are currently on their way to the region from as far afield as the US, Germany, Jordan and Japan.

Poor internet connections and damaged roads between some of the worst-hit cities in Turkey’s south, homes to millions of people, hindered efforts to assess and address the impact.

Temperatures in some areas were expected to fall to near freezing overnight, worsening conditions for people trapped under rubble or left homeless. Rain was falling on Monday after snowstorms swept the country at the weekend.

The EU has also activated its Copernicus satellite system to provide emergency mapping services. Britain is sending 76 search-and-rescue specialists with equipment and dogs, as well as an emergency medical team, to Turkey.

The UK also says it is in contact with the U.N. about getting support to victims in Syria.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said no Britons had been reported dead in the quake which has devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, but he acknowledged it was still too early to say whether that would remain the case as the full picture emerges.

He said the impact of the quakes was “on a scale that we have not seen for quite some time”.