Turkey-Syria earthquake: Rare survivors still being rescued a fortnight after disaster

ITV News' Chloe Keedy reports on the extraodinary rescues

Despite the increasing number of bodies being recovered every day, there are still rare, remarkable moments of joy when survivors are found amid the rubble.

On Saturday, a family of three was pulled out alive from under a collapsed block of flats in the Turkish village of Kanatli. They were trapped under the rubble for 13 days.

Video footage shows Samir Muhammed Accar, 49, trapped under debri, indicating to rescuers that there are two more behind him.

The rescue of him, his 40-year-old wife Ragda and his 12-year-old son were trapped for a total of 296 hours. Their rescue seemed nothing short of a miracle, but their joy didn't last long. The 12-year-old son was pulled out of the rubble alive, then later died of his injuries in hospital.

The dead bodies of his two siblings were also found in the rubble, local reports said, quoting a member of a Kyrgyz rescue team.

The hope of finding any more survivors is ebbing away. 17-year-old Taha Erdem still can't believe he is one of them. His family home collapsed when the earthquake hit.

As aftershocks kept coming, Taha was so convinced he was going to die that he recorded a video message to say goodbye.

"We are still shaking. Death, my friends, comes at a time when one is least expecting it. There are many things that I regret. May God forgive me of all my sins," he said in the recording. But two hours later, he was rescued and eventually reunited with his parents, who thought he was dead. The family are now living in a government-provided tent. "The world was mine at that moment," says Taha's mum. "I have nothing but I have my kids."

The number of confirmed dead continues to grow - more than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria are now known to have been killed by the earthquake.

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