AGONY..& MIRACLES

Turkey-Syria death toll hits 7,200 amid fears it will reach 20,000

A BABY girl was born under the rubble of the Turkey-Syria quake yesterday, an incredible gift of life amid the death and destruction. 

But, heartbreakingly, the tot’s mother and family sadly perished.

As the number of those who died shot past 7,200 an international rescue effort was under way to try to save thousands of people still buried.

They faced a race against time as experts fear the death toll could hit 20,000 with plunging temperatures and a danger of multiple aftershocks.

At least three Britons are missing feared dead in Monday's 7.8 magnitude quake, which ripped through around 200 miles of the Middle East.

Rescuers plucked the baby girl from beneath a collapsed five-storey block of flats in Jindires, Syria, 10 hours after the earthquake struck.

The tot was still attached to her mother Afraa Abu Hadiya by her umbilical cord. Rescuers separated the pair and the girl was rushed " to hospital where she was last night recovering in an incubator. Doctors said she was bruised but stable.

In Kahramanmaras, grieving father Mesut Hancer was seen clinging to his 15-year-old  daughter Irmak's hand as she lay dead beneath the rubble.