International Desk: Emine Avci, mother of one of the survivors Mustafa Avci, prays at a local hospital in Hatay province following the news of her son’s successful extrication. Photo: Anadolu Agency via TRT World
Eleven days into the quake — one of the deadliest in the past 100 years — rescuers have pulled a 12-year-old boy and two men out of the rubble, more than 260 hours after the earthquakes that have so far left over 43,000 people dead in Turkey and neighbouring Syria.

The boy was rescued from the rubble of a building in the central Antakya city of Hatay province at the 260th hour following the first earthquake that hit Turkey on the morning of February 6, local media reported late on Thursday.

Osman Halebiye, a foreign national, was pulled from the ruins of Buket Apartment in Ekinci district.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca visited the boy in a local hospital.

Two more people were pulled alive from the rubble in the same province but such rescues have become increasingly rare.

Both men, Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, and Mustafa Avci, 34, were rescued from the rubble of a building in Antakya district in the 261st hour after the first 7.7 magnitude quake.