A baby girl whose mother gave birth to her while trapped under the rubble of their Syrian home during Monday’s earthquake has been named Aya, an Arabic name, meaning ‘miracle’.
The name was given to the newborn by the manager of Afrin children’s hospital in Aleppo, Syria, Dr. Khalid Attiah, Daily Mail reported on Friday.
Sadly, her mother reportedly lost her life in the rubble.
Aya is one of the numerous children left orphaned by Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake, which killed more than 20,000 people in parts of Syria and Turkey.
The PUNCH had reported that the heartrending scenes of a newborn plucked alive from the rubble and a broken father clutching his dead daughter’s hand have laid bare the human cost of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey that by Wednesday had claimed over 9,500 lives.
For two days and nights since the 7.8 magnitude quake an impromptu army of rescuers have worked in freezing temperatures to find those still entombed among ruins in several cities either side of the border.
Officially, the death toll from the disaster now stands at 6,957 people dead in Turkey and 2,547 in Syria, bringing the total to 9,504 — but that could yet double if the worst fears of experts are realised.
