A 17-year-old girl was pulled out alive Thursday from the rubble in Turkey — 11 days after a powerful earthquake devastated a region where similar rescues have become far more rare.
Astonishing footage showed the teen, rescued in Turkey’s southeastern Kahramanmaras province, wrapped in a gold-colored thermal blanket being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance.
Since the disastrous Feb. 6 quakes, rescues have dwindled drastically in recent days as the death toll across Turkey and Syria nears 42,000.
Over 36,000 people in Turkey were killed in the earthquake; in neighboring Syria, 5,800 deaths have been reported.
Neither country has said how many people are still unaccounted for.
Meanwhile, frustration has grown in Turkey over corrupt building practices that allowed such a large scale of buildings to collapse. The country has promised it will launch an investigation of anyone believed to be responsible.
Residents of a luxury apartment complex that collapsed in the southern city of Antakya slammed the contractor responsible for buildings on the entire block. Officials believe 650 people died when the high-end Renaissance Residence apartments crumbled.
“I have two children. No others. They are both under this rubble,” said grieving mother Sevil Karaabdüloğlu.
“We rented this place as an elite place, a safe place. How do I know that the contractor built it this way? … Everyone is looking to make a profit. They’re all guilty,” she charged.
Across the border in Syria, the earthquake devastated a region already divided and run-down from 12 years of civil war.
The country’s government has tallied 1,414 deaths in the territory it holds. Over 4,000 deaths have been counted in the rebel-held region in the northwest. Rescuers have said nobody has been rescued alive from the rubble since Feb. 9.
With the main route used by the United Nations into Syria temporarily blocked, aid there has been delayed. Days after the disaster, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad approved of two additional routes to be opened.
On Thursday, the UN said 119 trucks had gone through the Bab-al-Hawa and Bab-al-Salam crossings since the earthquake, bringing aid that included food, medication, tents and other shelter items.
The aid also included cholera testing kits amid an outbreak in the region.
With Post wires.