Heartbreaking moment as a sobbing child and family are pulled from the wreckage of an earthquake in Syria

Footage has captured the heartbreaking moment when a sobbing child was dug up from the rubble after Syria’s devastating earthquake.

Video footage was captured of heroic rescuers desperately searching through rubble to reach several young children and family members.

The survivors are said to have been buried under the wreckage of their home in Jindires, Aleppo, northern Syria, where the worst damage was felt.

Syrian civil defense workers were filmed shouting frantically into the dark, wet remains of the building.

The team then sees a child whose lower half is trapped under stones and debris – her head appears to be covered in blood.

More workers also work to lift bricks away from another child’s body, with one person feeling his pulse to check if he has a pulse.

Amid screams and wails, the camera changes back to a waving hand – the only body part visible from a pile of rubble.

As the rescuers continue to scoop up the rubble with their bare hands, a child starts sobbing and coughing.

But soon after, they are lifted out alongside what appears to be three other children and a man on a gurney.

As workers scoop up the rubble with their bare hands, a child starts sobbing and coughing

As the group is taken out of the dark ruins and into the daylight, they are met by a crowd of people cheering.

Two of the children are then carried to an ambulance, with one girl wearing what appears to be an oxygen mask.

The images come after more than 7,800 people died in the magnitude-7.8 earthquake and its aftermath, which left 5,894 dead in Turkey and at least 1,932 in Syria.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) warns the death toll could reach as high as 20,000 amid efforts to rescue those still trapped under the rubble.

When the children were lifted from the rubble, they were met by a crowd of cheering people

Two of the children are then seen being taken to an ambulance, one of whom is wearing a mask

More than 23 million people in the two countries could also be affected, according to WHO assessments.

Earlier tonight, a team of 77 search and rescue specialists, state-of-the-art equipment and four dogs arrived in Turkey from the UK.

The plane arrived in the city of Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, to support current rescue efforts.

Teams from the US will also arrive in the southeastern province of Adiyaman tomorrow to focus on search and rescue in the city after the tragedy.

But aid to earthquake-hit Syria has been delayed by sanctions and damage to the only border crossing used to transport aid from Turkey to the country.

A key issue complicating the distribution of aid is “the war and the way aid action is divided between rebel areas and Damascus,” said Aron Lund, a fellow of the New York-based think tank Century International who studies Syria.

Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said: ‘It is imperative that everyone sees it as a humanitarian crisis with lives at stake. Please don’t politicize this. Let’s bring the help to the people who need it so badly.’