Medics tend to the girl after the rescue operation.

Gulf Today Report

Turkish Minister of Transport, Adel Kara Ismailoglu said that a little girl named Miray was rescued from the rubble of a residential building in the city of Adiyaman, in southern Turkey, on Monday, 178 hours after the devastating earthquake that struck the region.

Local media reported that the girl is four years old and that rescue teams are close to reaching her older sister.

The Turkish authorities said the girl is in good health. 

Thousands left homeless by a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria a week ago packed into crowded tents or lined up in the streets for hot meals as the desperate search for survivors entered what was likely its last hours.

Thousands of rescue teams, including Turkish coal miners and experts aided by sniffer dogs and thermal cameras, were searching pulverized apartment blocks for signs of life.

In southern Hatay province, rescuers cheered and clapped as a 13-year-old boy identified only by his first name, Kaan, was pulled from the rubble.

Stories of near-miraculous rescues have flooded the airwaves in recent days, including many that were broadcast live on Turkish television and beamed around the world.

But tens of thousands of dead have been found during the same period. Experts say the window for such rescues has nearly closed, given the length of time that has passed, the fact that temperatures have fallen to minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit) and the severity of the building