Turkish mother, 33, breaks down in tears as British rescuers pull her and son out from under rubble

British volunteer rescuers have completed the miraculous recovery of a mother and her baby boy from the rubble of their home in Turkey after being unable to move for 68 hours.

Serap Topal, 33, and her five-year-old son Mehmet Hamza Topal were trapped when their home in Kahramanmaras collapsed around them in a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake earlier this week.

Kahramanmaras was just a few kilometers from the epicenter of the quake, which devastated huge parts of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 17,000 people, with the death toll expected to rise sharply.

Serap and Mehmet spent most of the three days in pitch black darkness, covered in dust and debris, with Serap sustaining crush injuries.

But they were saved from near certain death by workers from SARAID, a group of British volunteers, and the German organization At Fire – both UN-class urban search and rescue teams.

Serap Topal broke down in tears as she was pulled from the rubble by British, German and Turkish rescuers in Kahramanmaras earlier this morning

A rescue worker looks up at the sky with exhilaration and joy after rescuing Mehmet Hamza Topal from the rubble of his collapsed home

Serap was carefully strapped to a spinal cord stabilizer after sustaining injuries in the disaster

British rescuers in orange hold Serap as they gently pull her out of the gap in the rubble

Stunning footage of the moment they were rescued showed Serap bursting into tears as she was overcome with fatigue and relief, while a volunteer looked skyward in utter excitement as he carried a seemingly uninjured Mehmet out of the rubble.

Heartbreaking images of Serap, who couldn’t hold back tears as her rescuers gently lifted her from the rubble and strapped her onto a stretcher, underscore the agony felt by tens of thousands of Turks and Syrians.

The sheer joy on the face of the rescuer who held the five-year-old boy perfectly embodied the hope of families, friends and aid workers that they will rescue more survivors from the darkness.

But such hopes faded Thursday as the death toll soared above 17,000, with those trapped under the concrete slabs and twisted metal having now spent more than 72 hours without food, water or, in some cases, oxygen.

Most experts consider the three-day mark the limit for saving lives, and the bitter winter weather combined with the sheer extent of the damage has severely hampered rescue efforts.

A 33-year-old mother, Serap Topal, and her 5-year-old son, Mehmet Hamza Topal, are rescued from the rubble by German and British rescue teams after 68 hours of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Kahramanmaras in Turkiye February 9, 2023

This is the tiny hole in the rubble that rescuers were able to extricate Serap and her son from

Rescuers search for survivors in the town of Harim in rebel-held northwest Syria

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday in a region where many people had already suffered casualties and displacement as a result of Syria’s civil war.

An official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told AFP that an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the earthquake that left survivors sleeping outdoors due to aftershocks.

A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian airstrikes had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and caused shortages of electricity, fuel and water.

Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, meanwhile, fell to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents, too scared or prevented from returning to their homes.

Parents walked the streets of the city, near the epicenter of Monday’s earthquake, carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.

People walk past the bodies of victims kept in a sports hall in the southeastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras

Bodies in sacks lie on the floor of a mortuary at a cemetery in Hatay, Turkey, February 9, 2023

White Helmets volunteers pull a child out from under rubble as they rescue him after a deadly earthquake in Jandaris, Syria, February 8, 2023

Some people have found refuge with neighbors or relatives. Some have left the region. But many have nowhere to go.

Gyms, mosques, schools and some shops are open at night. But beds are still expensive and thousands spend the night in cars with the engines running to keep warm.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit places, Kahramanmaras, after mounting online criticism over the initial disaster relief efforts and acknowledging problems.

“Of course there are flaws. The terms are clear. It is not possible to be prepared for a disaster like this,” he said on Wednesday.

Officials and medics said 14,351 people died in Turkey and 3,162 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, bringing the confirmed total to 17,513. Experts fear that the number will continue to rise sharply.

“We are now driving against the clock to save lives together,” said EU boss Ursula von der Leyen on Twitter.

Rescuers carry a little boy on a stretcher, which was pulled out from under the rubble after nearly three days

Cranes are hauling huge chunks of debris from the remains of a collapsed building

Search and rescue efforts continue after magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes struck several provinces of Turkiye including Kahramanmaras, Turkiye on February 9, 2023

The tragedy may be localized in Turkey and Syria, but aid agencies and governments from around the world have flocked to the region to offer their support and life-saving expertise.

Dozens of nations, including China and the United States, have pledged their help, and search teams and supplies have already arrived.

The EU is planning a donor conference in Brussels in March to mobilize international aid for Syria and Turkey.

The European Union said the conference was being held in coordination with the Turkish authorities “to mobilize funds from the international community to support the people of both countries”.

The bloc quickly dispatched rescue teams to Turkey after the massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country near the border with Syria on Monday.

Due to the EU sanctions imposed on President Bashar al-Assad’s government since 2011 in response to its brutal crackdown on protesters, which escalated into civil war, it initially offered Syria minimal assistance through existing humanitarian programs.

On Wednesday, Damascus officially asked the EU for help, the bloc’s crisis management commissioner said.

The Turkish-Syrian border is one of the most active seismic zones in the world.

Monday’s quake was the strongest since 1939, when 33,000 people died in eastern Erzincan province.

In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake killed more than 17,000 people.