THOUSANDS of rescuers continued to search for any sign of life in collapsed buildings in Türkiye yesterday, a week after two powerful earthquakes struck.

Hopes for finding survivors are fading, but the teams still manage some incredible rescues.

The quakes killed more than 33,000, with the toll expected to rise considerably as search teams find more bodies.

Rescuers yesterday pulled a 40-year-old woman from the wreckage of a five-story building in the town of Islahiye, in Gaziantep province.

The woman, Sibel Kaya, was rescued after spending 170 hours beneath the rubble by a mixed crew that included members of Turkey’s coalmine rescue team.

Earlier, a 60-year-woman, Erengul Onder, was also pulled out from the rubble in the town of Besni, in Adiyaman province, by teams from the western city of Manisa.

A survivor was rescued from the debris in the Antakya district of Hatay province by Chinese and local rescuers Sunday afternoon, 150 hours after the quakes hit the region.

An 83-year-old woman who was saved by Chinese and Turkish rescuers from earthquake ruins in the southern Turkish city of Malatya on Saturday has been confirmed to be in stable conditions in hospital.

The survivor had stayed under the ruins of a collapsed seven-story building without any water or food until she was rescued, said Yang Yi, a Chinese rescuer.

Meanwhile, John Lee, chief executive of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), on Sunday said he appreciated the HKSAR rescue team for assisting search and rescue operations in the quake-stricken areas in Türkiye, during which three survivors have been rescued.

The HKSAR Government on Wednesday sent a search and rescue team of 59 members, including officials from various departments such as security, fire services, immigration and health, to earthquake-hit Türkiye.

Many in Türkiye blame faulty construction for the vast devastation. At least 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes, officials said.

Visiting the Turkish-Syrian border Sunday, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said Syrians are “looking for international help that hasn’t arrived.”

The overall death toll in Syria stood at 3,553 Saturday, although the 1,387 deaths reported for government-held parts of the country hadn’t been updated in days. Turkey’s death toll was 29,605 as of Sunday.

In the Syrian capital of Damascus, the head of the World Health Organization warned that the pain will ripple forward, calling the disaster an “unfolding tragedy that’s affecting millions.”

“The compounding crises of conflict, COVID, cholera, economic decline, and now the earthquakes have taken an unbearable toll,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. (SD-Xinhua)