82 hours ENTOMBED

Two 3yr-old boys pulled from rubble . Hopes of finding others buried fade

- CHRIS HUGHES Defence and Security Editor

TWO three-year-old boys were among those pulled from the rubble alive in Turkey yesterday as hopes faded of finding many more trapped earthquake victims.

One of them was little Rami, who was plucked to safety with his mother Aya after a horrifying 82 hours trapped under the rubble of a building in the southern city of Hatay.

And as night fell, relatives celebrated the rescue of Mert Tatar, also three, 79 hours after the 7.6-magnitude earthquake demolished buildings in Kahramanmaras.

Babies pulled from the rubble in the Mediterranean city were taken to hospital in Ankara using leader Tayyip Erdogan's presidential plane. He was keen to reverse growing disquiet over the time it is taking to rescue stricken families and victims from their debris tombs in freezing conditions.

Rescuers pulled more survivors from collapsed buildings yesterday, but it is increasingly unlikely they will find many more people alive. It followed Monday's pre-dawn quake and hundreds of aftershocks that have claimed close to 20,000 dead and left tens of thousands injured.

Last night the official toll, which was still rising, was 19,300. It surpassed the 18,400 who died after a 2011 earthquake off Fukushima, Japan, triggered a tsunami.