As Turkey mourns victims after major quakes caused unprecedented destruction, miraculous rescue stories emerge from affected areas

Rescued after enduring 64 hours in the freezing cold, 24-year-old Dogan Akkok never fell into despair while trapped under the debris of a collapsed building near the epicenter of Monday's earthquakes in Turkey, writing the words, "Don't give up hope," on the surrounding rubble.

Firefighters from the Antalya province working to rescue those trapped in the Kahramanmaras province's Dulkadiroglu district – near the Pazarcik district where the first of two destructive earthquakes was centered – constantly reassured the young man as they pulled the bricks and cement away to get him out.

Another miracle rescue came as a 7-month-old baby was pulled out 66 hours after the devastating quakes, this time in the southern province of Hatay.

more good news came from the province after search and rescue teams heard a noise from the debris of a five-story building on Sakarya Street. The rescue teams pulled out Ayse Atceken and her daughters Emine and Feyza alive from the rubble 65 hours after the quake.

In the southernmost Hatay province, disaster teams rescued Saziye Kalagzi, 80, in another ray of hope in the grim aftermath of the earthquakes. The teams rescued the elderly woman who survived under the rubble for 68 hours after hearing her cry for help.

Nearly 70 hours after the quake, 45-year-old Duran Seker was rescued from the wreckage of a collapsed building in Ismet Pasa in the Kahramanmaras province, the epicenter of two powerful quakes that jolted the country and the region on Monday.

In the same province, another miracle came with the efforts of rescue teams 72 hours after the quake in the region. Ismail Altinok, 72, was rescued by teams in Sazibey from the northwestern Bursa province.

Over 14,350 people were killed and nearly 63,800 others were injured by two strong earthquakes which jolted southern Turkey on Monday, the country's disaster agency said on Thursday.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, were felt by 13 million people across 10 provinces, also including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.