Baby born under rubble of her home in Syria rushed to hospital

Jindayris: Extended family members were searching in the rubble for their loved ones when they heard a child’s cry.

A video showed a rescuer emerging from the rubble of a collapsed four-storey building clutching a tiny baby covered in dust, AFP reported.

The infant was found alive still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who was died on Monday’s quake in northern Syria.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Syria killing more than 1,600 people, in addition to the more than 3,400 deaths in neighbouring Turkey.

The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were all killed when their home in the town of Jindayris got fattened, according to the report.

Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative of the infant, said the extended family heard the voice of a baby as they were digging in the rubble.

To their dismay they found the baby in the rubble with its umbilical cord still intact, and they cut it to free the baby.

The baby is receiving treatment at a hospital in the nearby town of Afrin, the report said.

Several hours later, the family members recovered the bodies of the infant’s father Abdullah, mother Afraa, four siblings and an aunt.

The bodies were later taken for a joint funeral that was held on Tuesday. The house the family lived was one of the 50 in Jindayris that were flattened by the quake.

Reports from the hospital say that the baby is stable but she has scars and bruises all over her body and her left fist is wrapped around with a bandage.

Her forehead and fingers were still blue from the biting cold prompting doctors to administer calcium.

The rebel-held towns and cities of which Jindayris is one accounted for some 800 of the dead.

In 2018, Turkey and Syrian rebels seized Jindayris driving out Kurdish forces from the Afrin region.

Crippled by war, the region lacks the expertise or manpower to manage an effective emergency response on its own.