About 783 people have been killed in Syria as buildings collapsed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck neighbouring Türkiye in the early hours of Monday Morning.
Gatekeepers News reports that the US Geological Survey said that the earthquake hit near Gaziantep in southeastern Türkiye at 04:17 am (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 kilometres (11 miles).
Terrified residents ran from their homes in northern Syria after the earthquake hit near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Syrian border.
According to the official news agency, SANA, the Health Ministry said that the disaster killed at least 371 people and left at least another 1,089 injured in government-controlled parts of Syria, including the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus.
SANA said the earthquake was felt from Latakia on the coast in the west to Damascus.
The White Helmets Rescue group, which operates in the rebel-controlled areas of the war-torn country say that about 221 people were killed and at least another 419 were injured while also stating that the number was “expected to rise as hundreds of families (are) still trapped”.
The group said its teams were facing “difficulty” as hundreds of people were stuck under rubble, adding that heavy equipment was needed.
“This earthquake is the strongest since the National Earthquake Centre was founded in 1995,” Raed Ahmed, who heads the centre, told SANA.
Near the border town of Azaz, rescuers were seen pulling up survivors as well as five bodies from the rubble of a three-storey building that had collapsed.
Deaths were also reported in northern Syrian areas controlled by pro-Turkish factions.
“We have been working on rescuing survivors and recovering the dead from under the rubble” in the regions of Azaz and Al-Bab, Omar Alwan, the medical response coordinator for the area, told AFP.
Dozens of rescuers and residents had toiled in the darkness, using flashlights to look for survivors in the rubble.
In Azmarin on the Turkish border, at least 10 buildings had collapsed.Tremors were also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus.
The Turkish Head of Country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority says the confirmed death toll from this morning’s earthquake in Türkiye has now risen to 1,014.
The figures bring the combined total to at least 1,797.
The current death tolls are expected to rise as recovery efforts continue.
