Over 600 feared dead as earthquake shakes Turkey, Syria

The earthquake in Turkey and Syria on Monday killed over 600 people and caused widespread destruction.

The earthquake occurred with a magnitude of 7.8 and a centre in southeast Turkey near the border with northern Syria.

At least 650 people died in both countries because of the earthquake, which knocked down buildings and sent rescuers scrambling through the rubble to find people who were still alive.

Experts said that the number of deaths was likely to go up, and that aftershocks could keep happening for days or weeks. Cyprus, Egypt, and Lebanon also felt tremors.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were sent right away” to the areas hit by the earthquake.

The Syrian Civil Defense, which works in the parts of northern Syria that are controlled by the opposition, declared a state of emergency and asked “the international community to help save civilians in Syria.”

The earthquake happened at 4:17am (01:17 GMT), and its centre was in Kahramanmaras in Gaziantep province, about 33km (20 miles) from the capital city of Gaziantep, which is home to more than two million people, including hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled the country’s war, which started in 2011.

The quake happened about 50 km (31 miles) from the border of northwest Syria, where about 1.7 million Syrians who have been forced to leave their homes live in camps in areas where opposition groups are still fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In the area are several large cities run by the government, like Aleppo, which has a population of nearly 2 million people.

After the first earthquake, there were more than 40 aftershocks, one of which was 6.7 on the Richter scale.