‘My God’: Harrowing detail in Turkey earthquake photo as death toll passes 6000

More than 6000 are dead and as many as 23 million displaced as one “utterly heartbreaking” image sums up the pain in Turkey.

Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake's epicentre. Picture: AFP

More than 6000 people are now thought to have perished in a massive earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria.

Desperate scenes have emerged from the horror including a harrowing image showing a man sitting on the rubble of a collapsed building. But look closer and you can see he is holding the hand of his dead daughter, her body still pinned under the rubble.

Sky News commentator Piers Morgan posted the tragic picture to social media, remarking “My God, this picture is so utterly heartbreaking“.

Rescuers in both countries battled the frigid cold on Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by the earthquake.

Rescuers stand on top of the rubble of collapsed building in Gaziantep. (Photo by Zein Al RIFAI / AFP)

Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive.

The destruction led to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring a three-month state of emergency in 10 south eastern provinces.

Yet people in some of the hardest-hit areas said they felt like they had been left to fend for themselves.

“I can’t get my brother back from the ruins. I can’t get my nephew back. Look around here. There is no state official here, for God’s sake,” said Ali Sagiroglu in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.

A wounded survivor lies on the ground at the site of a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

Newborn baby born in rubble

One child was lucky to be alive. But it no longer had a mother.

The newborn baby was pulled alive from rubble in Syria, still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who died in Monday’s quake.

Shehad gone into labour as the quake hit.

“We heard a voice while we were digging,” Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative, told AFP.

“We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact) so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.”

The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were killed in the rebel-held town of Jindires.

Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre. Picture: AFP.

Father holds dead daughter’s hand

Also in Kahramanmaras, in southern Turkey close to the epicentre, a heartbreaking picture has shown a father holding his dead daughter’s hand.

Mesut Hancer’s 15-year-old daughter Irmak was crushed to death when their home collapsed, reported The Sun.

In the harrowing image, Mr Hancer can be seen sitting in the rubble staring into the distance.

He touchingly holds lifeless Irmak’s hand as she lies under the concrete on a mattress.

Irmak’s body lies on a mattress. Picture: AFP.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck on Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions. Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake’s epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

My god.. this picture is so utterly heart-breaking. A Turkish father, Mesut Hancer, holding the hand of his dead 15yr-old daughter in the rubble of a building crushed by the earthquake. Devastating. pic.twitter.com/iaINNajFbm

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 7, 2023

Dozens of nations including the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have begun to arrive by aeroplane.

A soldier sits devastated near the collapsed building. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)

A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads — some of them damaged by the quake — almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions.

The cold rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes — who took refuge in mosques, schools or even bus shelters — and survivors buried under debris.

“It is now a race against time,” said World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“We have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable,” he added.

Smoke rising from burning containers at the harbour of Iskenderun in Hatay, a day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country's southeast, on February 7. (Photo by Handout / DHA (Demiroren News Agency) / AFP)

23 million could be affected

The latest toll showed 4544 people killed in Turkey and 1712 in Syria, for a combined total of 6256 fatalities.

There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with WHO officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died.

WHO warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone.

The Syrian Red Crescent appealed to Western countries to lift sanctions and provide aid as President Bashar al-Assad’s government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international relief efforts.

Washington and the European Commission said on Monday that humanitarian programs supported by them were responding to the destruction in Syria.

The UN’s cultural agency UNESCO also said it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage List in Syria and Turkey sustained damage.

In addition to the damage to Aleppo’s old city and the fortress in the south eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.

Much of the quake-hit area of northern Syria has already been decimated by years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russia forces that destroyed homes, hospitals and clinics.

Residents in the quake-devastated town of Jindires in northern Syria used their bare hands and pickaxes to for survivors, as that was all they had to get the job done.