Turkey and Syria earthquake: More than 500 people died and fears continue to grow, dozens of buildings destroyed

Rescue teams are still carrying out search and rescue operations for people trapped under the rubble after hundreds of buildings were destroyed in both countries.

Turkey declared a state of emergency in the affected provinces and asked residents not to use mobile phones so rescue teams could coordinate.

Millions of people in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Israel were reported to have felt the tremors of the quake – the epicenter of which was near the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

The Syrian Health Ministry said the dead were found in the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus.

There are fears the death toll will rise sharply in the coming hours.

Many buildings have collapsed and rescue teams have been dispatched to search for survivors under huge piles of rubble or debris.

One man told the BBC he believed his family were “going to die” when a quake shook the five-story apartment they lived in, in the southern Turkish city of Adana.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. We rocked for almost a minute,” said Nilüfer Aslan.

During the shaking, he called out to his family members who were in another room.

“[Saya berkata] ‘There was an earthquake, let’s die together in the same place’… That was the only thing that crossed my mind.”

When the earthquake stopped, Aslan fled out of the apartment.

“I didn’t take anything with me, I stood outside in my sandals,” he said, watching four buildings in the vicinity collapse.

Local residents described fear and confusion when a powerful earthquake struck in the early hours of the morning.

“Paintings are falling from the walls of houses,” Samer, a resident of the Syrian capital, Damascus, told the news agency Reuters.

“I woke up smothered in fear. We left the whole family standing at the door.”

In the city of Gaziantep, Turkey, a resident named Erdem described severe shaking.

“I’ve never felt anything like this in my 40 years of life,” he told Reuters by phone.

“Everyone was sitting in their cars, or trying to drive to an open space away from buildings.”

“I imagine that no one in Gaziantep is in their house now.”

Another man in Pazarcık City said his family woke up because of the strong shaking, and waited anxiously until dawn, in the grip of cold weather and tense atmosphere.

“There are buildings destroyed around me, there are houses that are burning. There are buildings that are cracked. A building collapsed only 200 meters from where I am now,” said Nihat Altundağ, as reported The Guardian.

“People are all outside, all in fear.”

In the cities of Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa, which are located in southeastern Turkey, it was reported that at least 50 buildings were damaged in these two cities in southeastern Turkey.

Earlier, a strong earthquake hit the Gaziantep region in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border.

The United States Geological Survey said a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred at 04:17 a.m. Turkish time with a depth of 17.9 km near the city of Gaziantep.

The tremors of the earthquake were felt in the capital Ankara, and other cities in Turkey, as well as other regions.

Many buildings collapsed, and people are reportedly still trapped inside.

Menteri Dalam Negeri Turki, Suleymon Soylu mengatakan 10 quota terdampak gempa: Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir from Kilis.

The BBC’s correspondent in Diyarbakir, northeast of Gaziantep, reports that a shopping center building in the city has collapsed.

The tremors of the earthquake were also felt in Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus.

Rushdi Abualouf, BBC Producer in the Gaza Strip, said the earthquake shook his house for about 45 seconds.

Turkish seismologists estimated the magnitude of the quake to be 7.4 magnitude.

They said that a second quake hit the region just minutes later.

Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic zones in the world.

In 1999, more than 17,000 people died following a powerful earthquake that devastated the northwestern part of the country.

In Diyarbakir northeast of Gaziantep, a search is underway for people trapped in damaged buildings

This article will be continuously updated.