Turkey earthquake: Syrian rescuers find child in ruins of building

Civil defence workers continued digging through the rubble in northwestern Syria looking for survivors in the wake of a devastating earthquake that killed thousands.

Video released by the opposition Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, showed first responders digging a living child out of the wreckage of a collapsed building in Jinderis, an opposition-held town.

The rescue on Monday night was that of a girl called Nour, Arabic for light, whose dad was standing by as rescuers pulled her from the rubble.

Rescuers could be heard telling "talk to your dad, talk" as they dug her out and took her safety.

Rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria searched through the frigid night into Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 4,000 people and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region.

Authorities feared the death toll from Monday's pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria's 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.

Hundreds of families remained trapped in the rubble, the White Helmets said in a statement.

Rebel-held northwestern Syria is packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of the country by the war.

Many live in buildings that are already wrecked from military bombardments.

The White Helmets described the situation in the enclave as "disastrous."

The opposition-held area, centered on the province of Idlib, has been under siege for years, with frequent Russian and government airstrikes.

The territory depends on a flow of aid from Turkey for everything from food to medical supplies.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said 224 buildings in northwestern Syrian were destroyed and at least 325 were damaged, including aid warehouses.

The U.N. had been assisting 2.7 million people each month via cross-border deliveries, which could now be disrupted.