Northern Syria -

Muhammad al-Masto rushes to transport a heavy vehicle he owns (bagher) from the Bab al-Hawa area, north of Idlib, near the Syrian-Turkish border, to the Jenderes area in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo, with the aim of rescuing civilians trapped under the rubble of demolished buildings.

Al-Masto, 31, told Al-Jazeera Net that the region needs thousands of rescue mechanisms, given the scale of the damage caused by the earthquake, which he likens to what happened in Hiroshima, Japan, at a time when civil defense and the people are powerless in the face of the horror of the disaster.

The man added, "We hear the voices of civilians crying out under the rubble, including children and women, but their removal operations are taking place slowly in order to protect them from the walls falling on them, as well as due to the lack of sufficient mechanisms."

Al-Masto worked 24 hours a day, non-stop, in the area, and is expected to continue searching for those trapped under the rubble for at least 10 days if there is no urgent international intervention.

Dozens of people are waiting for their relatives to be removed from under the rubble in Harem (Al-Jazeera Net)

1200 dead and hundreds stranded

Northwestern regions of Syria were subjected to a violent earthquake that killed more than 1,200 people until the last update last night, amid speculation that the number of victims would rise.

The city of Harem, in northern Idlib, on the Syrian-Turkish border, is the most widely destroyed area, with hundreds of buildings falling over the heads of its residents, and hundreds of other buildings cracked.

A large part of the buildings in the city of Jenderes, in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo, was also subjected to widespread destruction, as hundreds of people are still trapped under the rubble, amid appeals for their rescue.


Limited capabilities

Jamil Al-Hussein, 45 years old, one of the rescued volunteers in northern Syria, weeping and burning about hearing the voices of children crying out during the process of removing the rubble, but to no avail due to the large number of rubble and the lack of sufficient mechanisms to remove the rubble from above them.

Al-Hussein told Al-Jazeera Net, "Most of the relatives of those trapped under the rubble are working while shivering from the cold to save the families, while the civil defense teams have been working continuously for 40 hours, but they need heavy machinery to continue working."

Al-Hussein expected that the number of victims in the cities of Jenderes and Harem, between dead and injured, would rise to more than 5,000 in the coming days, warning that the number of victims would double in the absence of new rescue teams.


official estimates

The Harem district administration of the Syrian Salvation Government, the opposition operating north of Idlib, documented the complete demolition of 35 buildings in the city, with the number of victims as of last night reaching 356.

The administration monitored 12 destroyed buildings in the town of Bisnia, northwest of Idlib, while the number of victims reached 169.

The number of demolished buildings in Salqin, northwest of the governorate, reached 51, and the number of injured reached 425.

Media activist Issa Al-Qaddour says that the buildings in the cities of Harem and Jandires, north of Aleppo, are mostly commercial buildings that were previously bombed by the Syrian regime and were cracked, so the disaster was great in these areas.

Al-Kaddour added to Al-Jazeera Net, "Most of the families of the victims and those trapped under the rubble are waiting in the extreme cold near the destroyed buildings in search of news that will heal their chests, while they are without food or shelter."

According to official data, the number of earthquake victims across Syria reached 1,932 dead and 3,949 injured.

While the Civil Defense confirmed the complete collapse of more than 375 buildings, more than 1,200 buildings partially, and thousands of other buildings in northwestern Syria.