Miracle baby born an orphan underneath earthquake rubble as both parents killed – with fears death toll could soar to above 20,000

MIRROR

A miracle baby who was born under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Syria has devastatingly bteen made an orphan as her parents did not make it out alive.

Painful footage showed the baby girl taking its first breath surrounded by destruction after her mother went into labour during the quake.

The mammoth rescue operation took place in Jenderes, in the countryside of Afrin, northeast Syria. But the parents of the child, displaced tragically did not survive the earthquake’s impact.

This was just one of thousands of rescue operations that unfolded as darkness, rain and cold enveloped the region of Turkey and Syria that was rocked by a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake early Monday.

Little is known about the newborn baby and its now-deceased family, aside from reports they had already been displaced by Syria’s brutal war from Deir Ezzor to Afrin, some seven hours away.

More than 5,000 people have now died and hundreds of buildings have been razed to the ground, in the aftermath of one of the deadliest natural disasters this century.

The initial quake was followed on Monday afternoon, local time, by another with a 7.7 magnitude. Today, a third 5.7 earthquake struck eastern Turkey as rescuers were digging through rubble with their bare hands.

In a news briefing, Vice President Fuat Oktay of Turkey called the earthquake the “disaster of the century” as the death toll reached 5,000.