News & Views

Turkey is clinging to hopes of finding survivors under rubble three days after a powerful earthquake killed at least 459 people in the southeast as the government finally requested foreign help to shelter thousands of homeless families. In a remarkable episode on Tuesday that raised hopes that more survivors could yet be found, a two-week-old baby was pulled alive from the rubble, almost two days after being buried inside a collapsed apartment building. Rescue workers then pulled out baby Azra's mother, Semiha Karaduman, and grandmother, Gulzade Karaduman, to cheers and applause. The baby was in good health, but has been sent to a hospital in Ankara, the capital, with her injured mother. "What kept them alive is a sofa bed, a sofa bed sufficiently robust in construction to have kept the collapsed floor and ceiling apart just enough for those three people to survive more than two days in the rubble," reported Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught from Ercis, the site of the rescue.