Earthquake kills family of baby born in rubble of Syria home

A funeral was held in Syria on Tuesday for the family of a baby born under the rubble of her home in Jinderis, Syria, which was destroyed by a massive earthquake and aftershocks that devastated the region on Monday.

“We heard a voice while we were digging,” Khalil al-Suwadi, the baby’s father’s cousin, told the AFP news agency. Jindayris is a rebel-held town in war-torn Aleppo province, which was badly affected by the earthquake. An estimated 25 percent of it was destroyed, according to reports.

“We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact), so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital,” al-Suwadi said.

After the baby was rescued, al-Suwadi and his extended family spent hours recovering the bodies of the her family, including her mother Afraa, her father Abdullah, her four siblings and and aunt, AFP reported.

Deaths in both Syria and Turkey from Monday’s massive 7.8 earthquake and multiple aftershocks neared 10,000 on Wednesday, and the World Health Organization said it was a “race against time” to rescue people trapped in the rubble in freezing conditions.

Syria, which already has a refugee crisis after 12 years of brutal civil war, is facing particular difficulty. The area worst affected by the earthquake is split between government-held territory, controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and opposition-held territory, which borders Turkey and is surrounded by government forces.