IN just four years, little Nofal and Maria Hennami have seen their two homes destroyed.
The wide-eyed youngsters fled Syria when bombs obliterated the family’s property.
Now — like 300,000 others — they are homeless again after their house across the border in Turkey was flattened by Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake.
As the evening gloom brings a bitter chill, the children — aged just six and five — dash from their tent to meet Red Crescent volunteers who are handing out food parcels funded by The Sun’s Earthquake Appeal.
The children’s father, Omar, 31, told us: “We are so grateful for the help we have received.
“We’ve been left with nothing and don’t know what we will do now or where we will go.
“The children have now lost two homes in four years. It’s been very traumatic for them.”
The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria rose to 20,450 last night but it is expected to rise sharply over the coming days.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan conceded there had been shortcomings in his country’s rescue efforts. Experts say time is running out.
Disaster management specialist Steven Godby told Sky News: “The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74 per cent, after 72 hours it is 22 per cent and by the fifth day it is six per cent.”
To donate, visit redcross.org.uk/sunaid
More than 28,000 people have been evacuated from Kahramanmaras, one of the southern Turkish provinces hit hardest.
Rescuers continued to pull survivors from the rubble yesterday. They included a toddler who was trapped for three days in Antakya.
Two hours earlier, they had rescued her father who whispered, “I love you all”, to the rescue team when told his daughter was safe.
With some 6,500 buildings collapsed and countless more damaged, and with rescue efforts hampered by a further 650 aftershocks recorded by Turkish authorities, thousands are being housed in tents among the wreckage.
The Hennamis are now sharing one with 17 other families in the streets of Islahiye — population 65,000 — close to the epicentre.
Such was the ferocity of the series of quakes, the city of apartment blocks and family homes looks like it was carpet-bombed.
A local government official confirmed at least 700 people died here and 60 per cent of the houses were either wrecked or deemed too unsafe to enter. Shaking his head, he said: “It’s a complete disaster.”
Heavy machinery and teams of rescuers are frantically digging through rubble for survivors.
Sun photographer Peter Jordan and I joined a Red Crescent team handing out meals to search- and-rescue experts outside one collapsed block of flats.
Teams — including a Red Crescent sniffer dog sent from Iran — had searched the debris for a man entombed beneath their feet.
Handler Ashkan Mirzai, 32, from the Iranian Red Crescent, said: “We rescued two people from this building yesterday.
“But a man is still trapped inside. I fear he’s dead but we’ll keep digging.”
The Red Crescent has already handed out 340,000 bottles of water, 2,000 tents and nearly 30,000 blankets in the region.
We watched as workers tunnelled beneath overhanging concrete slabs using their bare hands to rip through the debris.
Moments later, an aftershock rippled through, causing panic.
Police warned a building opposite was likely to fall, as people sprinted away.
One veteran Red Crescent staffer said the quake was “worse than the Indonesian tsunami”.
The charity worker, 50, who did not want to be named, added: “The survivors’ mental state is not good.
“Often they stay in tents outside their collapsed home. They desperately need high-energy food, hygiene kits and medical supplies.”
In regional hub Gaziantep, Red Crescent local president Mustafa Bozegeyik thanked Sun readers for their generous support.
Shown Thursday’s Sun front page announcing our campaign had reached the £500,000 mark, he said: “We would like to thank The Sun newspaper and especially its readers. We are really grateful.”
The Prince and Princess of Wales last night tweeted their support for the disaster victims.
They said: “We have been horrified to see the harrowing images coming out of Turkey and Syria.
“Our thoughts are with the communities affected and we are pleased to support the @decappeal campaign which will aid the response on the ground.”
Mum and son, 5, saved
A TRAUMATISED mum wept with joy yesterday as British rescuers pulled her and her son from a collapsed Turkish quake building.
Serap Topal, 33, and five-year-old Mehmet spent three days trapped under tons of masonry from their collapsed home in the city of Kahramanmaras.
The tearful mum and little Mehmet, who had minor injuries, were rescued by UK search and rescue team Saraid.
To donate, visit redcross.org.uk/sunaid
