Immense luck, and factors ranging from weather and health conditions are keys for earthquake victims' survival according to experts. One can survive being trapped under rubble for up to one week, they say. Indeed, more and more people, from infants to senior citizens have been found alive as search and rescue crews scour the debris in the earthquake-hit Turkish provinces.

Over the weekend, crews witnessed more "miracles," a word which is the headline of every news report in Türkiye while referring to those rescued alive long after the earthquake. It has turned into a cliche now, but the word boosts morale of victims' loved ones, anxiously awaiting good news. It was a miracle, for instance, for the next of kin of a 7-month-old baby, found alive in a collapsed building in the southern province of Hatay. Rescue crews discovered the boy through his cries and rescued him alive 140 hours after the gigantic earthquakes razed parts of Hatay to the ground. A 35-year-old man was rescued in the same province after being trapped under the rubble for 149 hours.

Twelve-year-old Cudi was found alive and rescued with her grandmother from the rubble of their home 147 hours after the earthquake in Hatay. Her first words as crews pulled her to safety was that she was "too dirty." "Take me to a Turkish bath," she told crews. The two managed to stay alive when they found a narrow space under the collapsed building they were trapped in.

Mustafa Sarıgül, a 35-year-old epilepsy patient, was found alive in a six-storey building in Hatay and pulled to safety 149 hours after the earthquake. Yusuf Sinan, a member of the rescue crew, recounted how they reached Sarıgül and how he talked to him to raise his spirits. "We were on alert for sounds inside the rubble. I saw a hole in the rubble and shouted a few times. Someone answered, and just then we decided to silence all equipment and pay attention," he told Anadolu Agency (AA). Digging through the rubble with the assistance of a crew from Romania, Sinan and others managed to reach to the spot where Sarıgül was trapped. To keep the latter awake and boost his morale, Sinan broke into a casual conversation with him and discovered their shared fondness for cabbages. "He told me he found three bottles of cabbage pickles in the rubble and asked me to remove them as well so we could eat it together but we couldn't," Sinan said. Recalling Sarıgül's resolve, Sinan said Mustafa broke into singing songs while they were trying to pull him to safety.

At another spot in Hatay, a rescue team comprised of miners who arrived from the western province of Izmir, rescued 57-year-old Mehmet Sözer from the debris, in the 137^th hour of the disaster and after an eight-hour effort. The same team rescued 30 people since Monday.

Eylül Kılıç, a young girl, was rescued 146 hours after the earthquake. She was found in the rubble of a six-storey apartment building in Nizip, a district of Gaziantep province. The little girl was staying at her aunt's home after her school was closed due to expected heavy snowfall for Monday, the day the earthquake struck Gaziantep and other provinces.

At least 66 people were rescued from the rubble between 117^th hour of the disaster and 140^th hour, with the figures slowly increasing in the following hours.

Tens of thousands of rescue workers are still scouring through flattened neighbourhoods despite freezing weather conditions that have exacerbated the misery of millions in desperate need of aid. In the midst of destruction and despair, miraculous tales of survival continue to emerge.

"Is the world there?" asked 70-year-old Menekşe Tabak as she was pulled out from the concrete in the southern city of Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of the earthquake, to applause and cries praising Allah. A 2-year-old girl, a 6 months pregnant woman, and a 4-year-old along with her father were among those rescued five days after the quake, Turkish media reported.