New-born baby girl rescued from underneath quake rubble in Syria

Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week’s devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.

The new-born girl’s umbilical cord was still connected to her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, who was dead, they said.

The baby was the only member of her family to survive from the building collapse Monday in the small town of Jinderis, next to the Turkish border, Ramadan Sleiman, a relative, told The Associated Press.

Monday’s pre-dawn 7.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by multiple aftershocks, caused widespread destruction across southern Turkey and northern Syria.

The new-born baby was rescued 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, where she has been kept on an incubator, said the doctor treating the baby, Dr. Hani Maarouf.

Dr. Maarouf said that the baby had large bruises on her face and ribs and back but was otherwise in a stable condition.

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