Earthquake piles misery on war-ravaged Syrians
STORY: On the streets of northwestern Syria, children are wailing, buildings are flattened, and local hospitals are full of bodies.
The cause - a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the country on Monday (February 6).
It was a painfully familiar sight for many Syrian families and rescuers, exhausted by what has been nearly 12 bleak years of bombardment and displacement.
Mounds of concrete, steel rods and bundles of clothes lay where multi-storey buildings once stood.
In the rebel-held town of Jandaris in Aleppo province, Hamdo Al Sheikh is desperately searching for his family.
“I am waiting to pull out my brother and his family, him and his 7 children. They pulled someone out but it was not them, they took him and went away. Each is pulling out his own, may God help us.”
Millions in northwest Syria have been left vulnerable by years of conflict, according to the United Nations.
Strikes and shelling have already traumatized the population, and weakened the foundations of many buildings.
The following distressing and graphic images from show a man sobbing into a bundle of sheets.
Inside, his newborn baby, killed after a building collapsed.
The White Helmets rescue service, founded in rebel-held territory to treat those hurt in bombardment, assisted with search efforts.
The group's head told Reuters that the volunteers are in a "race against time".
The cold winter weather has added another challenge for rescue workers, who say families have been left exposed in near-freezing temperatures and heavy rains.
Regional Emergency Director for the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean office, Rick Brennan.
“You know, when you think about what’s going on in Syria right now, a long standing humanitarian crisis, still getting over COVID, a huge economic crisis, cholera outbreak, and now this additional crisis, in the context of a harsh winter and major fuel shortages. You know, it’s almost like the perfect storm. And the convergence of all these crises is leading to enormous suffering.”
The U.N. believes 2.9 million people in the region have been displaced, and 1.8 million are living in camps.
