2-week-old Azra Karaduman has been reunited with her mother after they were pulled separately from the rubble of an apartment block that collapsed in Turkey's devastating Sunday earthquake. Her survival story, as told by TODAY in the video above, is a touching moment in an otherwise tragic scene, as TODAY notes that now "searchers are recovering more bodies than survivors."
Rescue workers erupted in cheers and applause Tuesday at sight of the infant – and again hours later when her mother and grandmother were pulled out, their survival a ray of joy on an otherwise grim day.
Tuesday's dramatic rescue of three generations of one family was all the more remarkable because the infant, Azra Karaduman, was declared healthy after being flown to a hospital in Ankara, the Turkish capital.
Television footage showed rescuer Kadir Direk in an orange jumpsuit wriggling into a narrow slit in the pile of concrete and metal, then sliding back out with Azra, clad only in a T-shirt.
"Praise be!" someone shouted. "Get out of the way!" another yelled as the aid team and bystanders cleared a path to a waiting ambulance.
The mother of the rescued baby, Semiha Karaduman, and the child's grandmother, Gulsaadet, were huddled together with the infant held tight against her mother's shoulder when rescuers found them, Direk told The Associated Press.
Hours after the infant was freed, the two adults were pulled from the half-flattened building and rushed to ambulances as onlookers clapped and cheered. The mother had been semiconscious, but woke up when rescuers arrived, Direk said.
2-week-old 'Baby Azra' has become the face of hope in the disastrous earthquake. In the above video from TODAY, her mother explains how she fed Azra her own saliva to keep her hydrated while the two were trapped under the rubble. When rescuers finally reached them, she held her baby out to be saved first.
As the death toll rises, forecasts of rain and snow threaten to hamper further rescue efforts. The government has reported 534 deaths so far, according to the Associated Press.
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