Turkiye - Syria Quake: Death toll climbs to more than 9,600

The number of victims in Turkey and Syria continues to climb quickly more than 48 hours after earthquakes leveled cities and towns in the two countries. 

The combined toll death toll surpassed 9,600 people on Wednesday, making it the world’s deadliest earthquake disaster in over a decade.

Turkey reported at least 7,108 deaths and 40,910 injured. In government-controlled parts of Syria, at least 1,250 people were killed and 1,449 were injured, according to state media.

Civil defense workers in the rebel-held northwest of Syria recorded more than 1,280 deaths and 2,600 injured.

Sanctions against Syria from the United States and European Union are preventing urgent aid from reaching those in need following the devastating earthquake, the country's representative to the United Nations said Tuesday.

"Lots of the airplanes, cargo airplanes, refuse to land on Syrian airports, because of the American and European sanctions," Bassam Sabbagh, Permanent Representative of Syria to the UN said in New York.

Rescue workers are continuing their race against time to find survivors.

“Another miracle,” said the White Helmets, a rescue organisation operating in rebel-control areas in northwestern Syria.

“A child rescued after more than 40 hours of being trapped under the rubble of her house in the city of Salqin in the countryside of Idlib,” it added in a Twitter post.

Meanwhile,a 2-month-old baby rescued alive from earthquake rubble. The youngest person rescued so far was sucking his thumb as rescuers wrapped him in a blanket.

In Syria, Members of White Helmets civil defense agency rescued a mother and three children from collapsed building in earthquake-hit Idlib city of Syria