KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey, Feb 13, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Rescuers pulled more

survivors from the rubble a week after an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria
leaving more than 33,000 dead, as the UN warned the toll was set to rise far
higher.

A young boy and a 62-year-old woman were the latest miracle rescues after
nearly seven days trapped under the wreckage of collapsed buildings since
last Monday's devastating quake.

Seven-year-old Mustafa was rescued in southeast Turkey's Hatay province while
Nafize Yilmaz was pulled free in Nurdagi, also in Hatay, the Anadolu state
news agency reported early Monday. Both had been trapped for 163 hours before
their rescue late Sunday.

Turkey's disaster agency said more than 32,000 people from Turkish
organisations were working on search-and-rescue efforts, along with 8,294
international rescuers.

A member of a British search team posted a remarkable video on Twitter on
Sunday showing a rescuer crawling down a tunnel created through the rubble to
find a Turkish man who had been trapped for five days in Hatay.

Search teams are facing a race against the clock as experts caution that
hopes for finding people alive in the debris dim with each passing day.

In the devastated Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the
quake, excavators dug through mountains of twisted rubble as a rescue team
recovered a body from the wreckage.

But in many areas, rescue teams said they lacked sensors and advanced search
equipment, leaving them reduced to carefully digging through the rubble with
shovels or only their hands.

"If we had this kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if
not more," said Alaa Moubarak, head of civil defence in Jableh, northwest
Syria.

- Lack of aid in northern Syria -

The United Nations has decried the failure to ship desperately needed aid to
war-torn regions of Syria.

A convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but the UN's
relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose
homes were destroyed.

"We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel
abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived," Griffiths
said on Twitter.

Assessing damage in southern Turkey on Saturday, when the toll stood at
28,000, Griffiths said he expected the figure to "double or more" as chances
of finding survivors fade with every passing day.

Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have
ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the
control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which
is under Western sanctions.

But a 10-truck UN convoy crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa
border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent, carrying shelter kits,
plastic sheeting, rope, blankets, mattresses and carpets.

Bab al-Hawa is the only point for international aid to reach people in rebel-
held areas of Syria after nearly 12 years of civil war, after other crossings
were closed under pressure from China and Russia.

The head of the World Health Organization met Assad in Damascus on Sunday and
said the Syrian leader had voiced readiness for more border crossings to help
bring aid into the rebel-held northwest.

"He was open to considering additional cross-border access points for this
emergency," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

- Conflict, Covid, cholera, quake -

"The compounding crises of conflict, Covid, cholera, economic decline and now
the earthquake have taken an unbearable toll," Tedros said a day after
visiting Aleppo.

While Damascus had given the all-clear for cross-line aid convoys to go ahead
from government areas, Tedros said the WHO was still waiting for a green
light from rebel-held areas before going in.

Assad looked forward to further "efficient cooperation" with the UN agency to
improve the shortage in supplies, equipment and medicines, his presidency
said.

He had also thanked the United Arab Emirates for providing "huge relief and
humanitarian aid", with pledges of tens of millions of dollars.

But in Turkey security concerns prompted the suspension of some rescue
operations, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to
defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake, according to state media.

An Israeli emergency relief organisation said Sunday it had suspended its
earthquake rescue operation in Turkey and returned home because of a
"significant" security threat to its staff.

- Anger grows -

After days of grief and anguish, anger in Turkey has been growing over the
poor quality of buildings as well as the government's response to the
country's worst disaster in nearly a century.

A total of 12,141 buildings were officially either destroyed or seriously
damaged in Turkey.

Three people were put behind bars by Sunday and seven more have been detained
-- including two developers who were trying to relocate to the former Soviet
republic of Georgia.

Officials and medics said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria
from last Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake, bringing the confirmed total to
33,186.