Diyarbakir, Turkey: “People are still trapped under the rubble”
A powerful earthquake struck southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border, killing more than 1,000 people as they slept and trapping many more.
The US Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9 km (11 miles) near the town of Gaziantep.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the death toll there now stands at 912.
In Syria, more than 470 people have died, with casualties in government-held and rebel-held areas.
The Syrian Health Ministry said 326 people had died in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartous.
The White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-held areas of northwest Syria, said on Twitter that at least 147 people had died there.
The death toll is feared to rise sharply in the coming hours.
Many buildings collapsed and rescue teams were deployed to search for survivors under huge piles of rubble.
Among the destroyed buildings was Gaziantep Castle, a historical monument that had existed for over 2,000 years.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province. Turkish Interior Minister Suleymon Soylu said 10 cities were affected: Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir and Kilis.
In Gaziantep, at least 80 people were killed, officials said, while 70 died in Kahramanmaras.
In Malatya province, northeast of Gaziantep, at least 47 people were killed. In Sanliurfa, to the east, there were 18 deaths. Other deaths were reported in various places, including Diyarbakir and Osmaniye.
At least 5,383 people were injured in Turkey and 1,000 in Syria.
A BBC Turkish correspondent in Diyarbakir reported that a shopping mall in the city had collapsed.
Watch: Search for people in Malatya earthquake rubble
The tremor was also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus.
“I was writing something and all of a sudden the whole building started shaking and yeah I didn’t really know what to feel,” Mohamad El Chamaa, a student from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, told the BBC.
“I was right next to the window, so I was just afraid they would break. It lasted four to five minutes and it was pretty awful. It was mind-blowing,” he said.
Rushdi Abualouf, a BBC producer in the Gaza Strip, said there were about 45 seconds of shaking in the house where he was staying.
Turkish seismologists estimated the strength of the earthquake at a magnitude of 7.7. They said a second tremor hit the area a few minutes later.
Several hours later, another strong aftershock was detected in several towns in southern Turkey.
Turkey is in one of the most active seismic zones in the world.
In 1999, more than 17,000 people were killed after a powerful quake shook the northwest of the country.
source of images, Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In Diyarbakir, northeast of Gaziantep, a search is now underway to find people trapped in damaged buildings
source of images, Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In Malatya, also northeast of Gaziantep, cars were crushed by collapsed buildings
source of images, Sana via Reuters
In northern Syria, the earthquake leveled a number of buildings in the city of Hama
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