Quake-trapped Syrian children in focus

Videos of frightened children stuck under the rubble, or dug out from under piles of concrete blocks, crying, trembling or screaming in quake-stricken Syria are going viral on the internet.

In one of the videos, which made it on several social media sites, a 10-year-old girl called Elaf thanked her rescuer as she was pulled out of a tiny opening dug in the concrete of a collapsed building, where she spent some 36 hours.

“My mom and sister are trapped dead in there,” said the girl, with a French braid hairstyle and covered by dust from head to toe,

The images are receiving a growing number of sympathetic messages from ordinary people across the region.

At least 3,162 people have been killed, 5,685 others have been injured, and thousands of others have been missing since the powerful earthquake jolted northern Syria and southern Turkey on Monday.

Damascus has complained that its relief operation is going at a snail pace because it lacks the necessary equipment to be used in excavations.

Syria is under a crippling western embargo, which is hampering the dispatch of pledged in-kind assistance to Syria.

Relief and rescue teams estimate that the total death toll from both countries could hit 100,000.