Boy aged eight is symbol of hope as he's saved after two days

THE official death toll from the Turkish and Syrian earthquake was set to top 10,000 today as the critical rescue window began to close amid warnings of a humanitarian disaster affecting millions.

- Ross Lydall

Dramatic footage of a family of six being pulled alive from rubble in the Syrian city of Idlib was one of few moments of hope, as the scale of the challenge faced by poorly equipped rescuers racing against time in ruined towns and cities was laid bare.

In the Turkish city of Hatay, eight-year-old Yigit Cakmak hugged his mother after being rescued from a collapsed building 52 hours after the first earthquake struck at about 4am on Monday.

Other miraculous rescues included that of a three-year-old boy, whose lower body had been trapped under concrete slabs in the city of Kahramanmaras. Workers carefully cut the debris away, wary of triggering another collapse. His father, Ertugrul Kisi, who had been rescued earlier, sobbed as the boy was pulled free and taken to an ambulance.

A few hours later, rescuers pulled 10-year-old Betul Edis from the rubble of her home in the city of Adiyaman. Amid applause from onlookers, her grandfather kissed her and spoke softly to her as she was taken to hospital. But most rescuers faced the grim task of recovering dead bodies from the ruins.