Miraculous rescues a week after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Rescuers have pulled more survivors from the rubble, a week after the powerful earthquake that killed more than 33,000 people in Turkey and Syria, according to a toll expected to worsen further according to the UN These rescues seem unexpected, well beyond the crucial 72-hour period after the disaster.

Overnight from Sunday to Monday, seven people were rescued alive, according to the Turkish press, including a 3-year-old child in Kahramanmaras and a 60-year-old woman in Besni A 40-year-old woman was also rescued after 170 hours in Gaziantep.

A member of a British rescue team posted a video on Twitter on Sunday showing a rescuer going through a tunnel created in the ruins of this same city and coming out a Turk, stranded for five days.

And in the southern town of Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the quake, excavators dug and excavated the ruins, while victims, huddled around a fire, awaited news of their relatives In total, 34,717 people work at the The search for survivors is ongoing, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told local media.

Some 1 2 million people have been housed in student residences and 400,000 evacuated from the area, he added.

The powerful quake also shattered important places of worship In Antakya, Havva Pamukcu, Muslim faithful of the Habib-I Nejjar mosque, cannot believe it.

"This place means a lot to us," she breathes "He was very valuable to all of us, Turks and Muslims.

People had the used to come here before going on pilgrimage to Mecca "The Orthodox church of the city suffered the same fate, notes Sertac Paul Bozkurt, member of the council.

"Unfortunately, our church was destroyed after the earthquake All its walls have collapsed and it is not in a condition to shelter prayers,” he laments.

“We have suffered great losses We have lost around 30-35 people from our religious community,” he says.

“They feel abandoned ” The situation is particularly complex in Syria, where bab-al hawa in the northwest remains the only crossing point.

operational from Turkey to the rebel areas, also devastated by the earthquake Trucks, with on board enough to make emergency shelters using plastic as well as blankets, mattresses, ropes or even screws and nails, crossed the border.

Insufficient aid, admitted the UN "So far we have failed the people of the north-west of the Syria," said the head of the UN humanitarian agency Martin Griffiths.

"They rightly feel abandoned" and "this failure must be corrected as soon as possible" World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday, assuring that the latter had shown himself ready to consider the opening of new crossing points to deliver aid to the rebel areas.

He indicated "being open to the idea of ​​​​considering cross-border access points for this emergency ",.