A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on Monday, killing more than 2,300 people and wounding more than 10,000 in the country and neighboring Syria, with numbers expected to rise as people remain trapped under rubble, according to authorities.
Strong aftershocks continued to shake the region following the first earthquake that hit Gaziantep province, which borders Syria, at around 4:17 am local time at a depth of 17.9 kilometers.
The USGS detected a M7.5 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. At a depth of 10 km.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority reported that 1,498 people were killed and more than 8,500 were injured in the country and over 2,800 buildings collapsed.
"Because the debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings in the earthquake zone, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise," Erdogan was quoted as saying by The Associated Press.
The earthquake also shook Syria, Cyprus, and Lebanon.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for international aid for earthquake-stricken countries, including civil war-torn areas of Syria, telling a General Assembly session on Monday that many of those affected were "already in dire need of humanitarian aid."
In north and northwestern Syria, at least 430 deaths and more than 1,300 infections have been reported, according to the country's health ministry.
A civil cooperative noted that more than 380 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in the part of northwestern Syria where the opposition controls the country.
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