Trapped boy given water by rescue workers

Heart-wrenching footage has captured the moment rescue workers gave a little boy water with a bottle cap before pulling him out of wreckage nearly 45 hours after the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

The young child, named as Muhammed Ahmed from Syria, had been trapped underneath rubble following the 7.8 magnitude quake since the early hours of Monday.

Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu shared a clip on Twitter of the hard-to-watch moment.

“Well done Muhammed. Our search and rescue team rescued Syrian citizen Muhammed Ahmed from the rubble in Antakya,” he said.

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The video shows the dehydrated little boy drinking water out of the bottle cap, carefully given to him by a rescue worker, as he was trapped underneath rubble from the neck down and unable to use his arms.

He can be heard crying in between sips as he signals for more water.

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It comes as hopes of finding more survivors trapped in the rubble are fading, with the death toll rising to more than 11,000.

Stretched rescue teams have toiled through Turkey and Syria in a bid to find more signs of life in the aftermath of one of the world’s deadliest earthquakes in more than a decade.

Ilan Kelman, professor of Disasters and Health at University College London, said the window for post-earthquake search-and-rescue is “rapidly closing”.

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“Typically, few survivors are pulled out after 72 hours – yet every life saved is essential and some people are extricated after many days,” he said.

“Time is always the enemy, as seen in Turkey and Syria. People die due to immediate medical needs such as bleeding to death or succumbing to crush injuries; due to aftershocks that collapse precarious structures with people underneath.”

He added that many people could die from hypothermia due to the plummeting temperatures or lack of food and water while awaiting rescue.

Search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in the mass rescue operation – while aid pledges have poured in from around the world.

In the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral vehicles to pick them up, according to former journalist Ozel Pikal, who saw eight bodies pulled from the ruins of building.

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Mr Pikal, who took part in the rescue efforts, believes some of the victims have frozen to death as temperatures dipped to -6C.

“Today isn’t a pleasant day because as of today there is no hope left in Malatya,” he said. “No one is coming out alive from the rubble.”

He said a hotel building collapsed in the city and more than 100 people could be trapped, and there is a shortage of rescuers in the area, while the cold has slowed down rescue efforts by volunteers and government teams.

Road closures and widespread damage in the region have also affected mobility and access.

“Our hands cannot pick up anything because of the cold,” Mr Pikal said. “Work machines are needed.”

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