The head of Turkey’s disaster agency, Yunus Sezer, said rescue operations would be largely completed by Sunday night as the number of dead bodies has reduced to a handful as of press time.

The death toll from the earthquake in Syria and Turkey rose to more than 44,000 on Saturday, February 18.

The head of Turkey’s disaster agency, Yunus Sezer, said rescue operations would be “largely completed” by Sunday night as the number of dead bodies has reduced to a handful as at press time.

State news agency Anadolu initially reported on Saturday that three people were found alive nearly two weeks after the the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit on February 6. But the agency later reported that one of them, a 12-year-old, had died.

Photos showed rescuers placing a man and a woman on stretchers after the married couple and a child spent 296 hours under the rubble in the southeastern Turkish city of Antakya.

The agency later reported three of their children had died including the 12-year-old.

Teams on Friday pulled four people alive from the rubble, including a 45-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy, in the surrounding Hatay province.

Rescues that were initially met with applause and relief, have in recent days been greeted more soberly.

Officials and medics said that 40,642 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria from the quake, bringing the confirmed total to 44,330. The toll from Syria has remained unchanged for days.

The quake in one of the world’s most active seismic zones hit populated areas as many slept, in homes that had not been built to resist such powerful tremors.

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