A TEENAGE girl was rescued from the ruins of a collapsed apartment block an incredible 248 hours after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Aleyna Olmez, 17, was found among the rubble by rescue workers having survived for more than 10 days after the disaster.
Pictures showed the young woman wrapped in a blanket in Kayabasi, Turkey, as hopes of finding more survivors dwindled.
She told reporters from hospital that she had tried to pass the time by distracting herself, adding: “I had nothing with me.”
Hacer Atlas, a rescuer who was involved in reaching Olmez, said: “First we held her hand, then we took her out.
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"She is in a very good condition, she can communicate.
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"I hope we will continue to receive good news about her.”
Freezing conditions and difficulty getting aid to remote areas is fuelling a further humanitarian disaster.
The United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria Muhannad Hadi said yesterday that the death toll in the country is set to rise as teams scramble to reach buildings in hard-hit areas.
He said: “We’re hoping that this number will not increase by much,” Hadi said.
“But from what we are seeing… the devastation of this earthquake is really not giving us a lot of hope that this will be the end of it.”
More than 42,000 people are now believed to have died in last Monday’s earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
The Sun Earthquake Appeal, which we launched to support the Red Cross, has now raised over £1 million with readers donating £110,000.
