SAD: Over 2,300 Dead as Powerful Earthquake Hits Southern Turkey and Syria

More than 2,300 people have d!ed and rescuers are racing to pull survivors from beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake ripped through Turkey and Syria, leaving destruction and debris on each side of the border.

One of the strongest earth*quakes to hit the region in a century shook residents from their beds at around 4 a.m. on Monday, sending tremors as far away as Lebanon and Israel.

In Turkey, at least 1,498 people have d!ed and several thousand are injured, according to the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD).

In neighboring Syria, at least 820 have d!ed. According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, 430 people have d!ed across government-controlled areas, mostly in the regions of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Tartus. The “White Helmets” group, officially known as the Syria Civil Defense, reported 390 dea*ths in opposition-controlled areas.

Much of northwestern Syria, which borders Turkey, is controlled by anti-government forces amid a bloody civil war that began in 2011.

The epicenter of the 7.8-magnitude quake was 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.

A series of aftershocks have reverberated throughout the day. The largest, a major quake that measured 7.5 in magnitude, hit in Turkey about nine hours after the initial quake, according to the USGS. That aftershock hit around 95 kilometers (59 miles) north of the original.

Video from the scene in Turkey showed day breaking over rows of collapsed buildings, some with apartments exposed to the elements as people huddled in the freezing cold beside them, waiting for help.

A host of countries have sent rescue workers to help the stricken region, where a colossal effort to find and free tra*pped civilians is underway. A cold and wet weather system is moving through the region, further hampering that challenge.

Monday’s quake is believed to be the strongest to hit Turkey since 1939.