Residents digging through a collapsed building in a north-west Syrian town have discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week’s devastating earthquake.
Key points:
- The baby's body temperature had dropped and she had bruises, but was in a stable condition
- Doctors said the mother would have been conscious during the birth and must have died soon after
- The quake completely or partially toppled more than 730 buildings in Idlib
The mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, died before rescue workers reached her.
The newborn girl’s umbilical cord was still connected to her mother's body, they said.
Ramadan Sleiman, a family relative, said the baby was the only member of her family to survive the building collapse in the small town of Jinderis.
Monday’s pre-dawn magnitude 7.8 earthquake, followed by multiple aftershocks, caused widespread destruction across southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
Thousands have been killed, with the toll mounting as more bodies are discovered. But dramatic rescues have also occurred.
Elsewhere in Jinderis, a young girl was found alive, buried in concrete under the wreckage of her home.
The newborn baby was rescued on Monday afternoon, more than 10 hours after the quake struck.
After rescuers dug her out, a female neighbour cut the cord, and she and others rushed with the baby to a children’s hospital in the nearby town of Afrin.
Doctor Hani Maarouf said the baby was stable and being kept in an incubator.
Her body temperature had fallen to 35 degrees Celsius and she had bruises, including a large one on her back, but she is in stable condition, he said.
'An hour more, she would have died'
Video of the rescue circulating on social media shows the moments after the baby was removed from the rubble, as a man lifts her up, her umbilical cord still dangling, as another man throws him a blanket to wrap her in.
Ms Abu Hadiya must have been conscious during the birth and must have died soon after, Dr Maarouf said.
He estimated the baby was born several hours before being found, given the amount her temperature had dropped.
If the girl had been born just before the quake, she wouldn’t have survived so many hours in the cold, he said.
"Had the girl been left for an hour more, she would have died," he said.
When the earthquake hit before dawn on Monday, Ms Abu Hadiya, her husband and four children apparently tried to rush out of their apartment building, but the structure collapsed on them.
Their bodies were found near the building’s entrance, said Mr Sleiman, who arrived at the scene just after the newborn was discovered.
“She was found in front of her mother’s legs,” he said.
“After the dust and rocks were removed the girl was found alive."
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Story published on ABC News Australia