New-born baby pulled from earthquake ruins in Türkiye, as death toll tops 22,000

Rescue crews saved a 10-day-old baby and his mother trapped in rubble in Türkiye on Friday and dug several people from other sites, as President Tayyip Erdogan admitted authorities should have reacted faster to this week's huge earthquake.

The confirmed death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in two decades stood at more than 22,000 across southern Türkiye and northwest Syria four days after it hit. Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in bleak winter conditions and leaders in both countries have faced questions about their response.

Erdogan visited Türkiye's Adiyaman province on Friday, where he acknowledged the government's response was too slow.

"Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be," he said.

(CGTN)