A magnitude 7.8 earthquake with an epicentre in southeastern Turkey close to the border of northern Syria has killed a whole bunch of individuals and prompted widespread destruction.

The quake killed a minimum of 641 folks throughout each nations, toppling buildings and sending rescuers scrambling by way of the rubble to seek out survivors.

The dying toll was anticipated to rise, with specialists warning that aftershocks might proceed for days or even weeks. Tremors have been additionally felt in Cyprus, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on Twitter that “search and rescue groups have been instantly dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.

In the meantime, the Syrian Civil Defence, which operates within the opposition-held parts of northern Syria, declared a state of emergency and appealed for “the worldwide group to assist the rescue of civilians in Syria”.

The place did the earthquake hit?

The earthquake occurred at 4:17am (01:17 GMT), with its epicentre in Kahramanmaras in Gaziantep province, about 33km (20 miles) from the capital metropolis of Gaziantep, which is residence to greater than two million folks, together with a whole bunch of 1000’s of Syrians who fled throughout the nation’s struggle, which started in 2011.

The US Geological Survey company famous that the world accommodates many buildings constructed of brick masonry or brittle concrete, making them “extraordinarily susceptible to earthquake shaking”.

The quake was about 50km (31 miles) from the border of northwest Syria, the place about 1.7 million internally displaced Syrians dwell in a cluster of camps in areas managed by opposition teams nonetheless preventing the federal government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A number of giant government-controlled cities, together with Aleppo, with a dense inhabitants of almost 2 million, are situated within the space.

Greater than 40 aftershocks have been felt within the wake of the preliminary quake, together with one with a magnitude of 6.7.

These aftershocks stretched “a distance of about 100km to 200km (62 to 124 miles) all alongside a giant fault line,” Chris Elders, professor on the College of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin College in Perth, Australia, advised Al Jazeera, referring to the East Anatolian Fault, which stretches throughout the southeastern portion of Turkey.

What do we all know concerning the casualties?

The dying toll was rising quickly on Monday, with Turkey’s Catastrophe and Emergency Administration company saying a minimum of 284 folks have been killed in seven Turkish provinces by 10:35am (07:35 GMT).

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay stated 2,023 folks have been wounded and 1,718 buildings had collapsed within the nation.

Rescuers have been digging by way of the rubble of levelled buildings within the metropolis of Kahramanmaras and neighbouring Gaziantep. Crumbled buildings have been additionally reported in Adiyaman, Malatya and Diyarbakir.

The dying toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 237 with greater than 630 injured, in accordance with Syrian state media, with deaths reported within the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartous.

At the very least 120 folks have been killed and greater than 230 injured in rebel-held elements of northwestern Syria on Monday, rescue staff stated.

“Massive harm and native devastation must be anticipated. Rescue forces are within the space proper now and we’ll see the quantity rising over the following days,” Martin Mai, a professor of geophysics at King Abdullah College in Saudi Arabia, advised Al Jazeera.

“Up to now, these earthquakes in Turkey have led to about 10,000 to 13,000 fatalities owing to constructing model building and the sheer measurement of this occasion can have profound financial influence as nicely.”

The well-known Yeni Mosque, which dates again to the thirteenth century, partially collapsed within the province of Maltaya, the place a 14-story constructing with 28 flats additionally collapsed.

Is the rescue effort going to work?

Rescue efforts are being hampered by a winter blizzard that lined main roads in ice and snow.

Support staff warned of a very dire state of affairs in northwest Syria.

“Proper now now we have a disaster, along with very unhealthy climate situations and collapsed buildings, and sadly, broken hospitals,” Mazen Kiwara, the Center East Regional Director for the Syrian American Medical Society, advised Al Jazeera.

“We obtained preliminary info from our hospitals … The hospitals are overwhelmed from the variety of casualties,” he stated, including that a number of hospitals needed to be evacuated.

There have been “5 to seven deaths in a fetal hospital in Afrin,” Kiwara added, “together with one pregnant mom who handed away however our colleagues succeeded to get out her child out alive. And he’s in a superb situation proper now.”

Why was the earthquake so lethal?

Curtin College’s Elders stated the depth of the earthquake, at about 18km (11 miles) deep, made the incident notably devastating.

Whereas that “sounds fairly deep”, he stated, nonetheless, “the vitality that’s launched by the earthquake will likely be felt fairly near the floor with a lot better depth than if it was deeper within the crust”.

Naci Gorur, an earthquake skilled with Turkey’s Academy of Sciences, urged native officers to instantly verify the area’s dams for cracks to avert probably catastrophic flooding.

Turkey predominantly sits on the Anatolian Plate, with two main faults, the North Anatolian Fault, which runs between the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate to the north of Turkey’s land mass, and the East Anatolian Fault, which runs alongside the Arabian Plate to the southeast of Turkey’s territory.

The geological location makes Turkey one of many world’s most lively earthquake zones.

In 1999, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit the Duzce area in northeastern Turkey, killing greater than 17,000 folks, together with greater than 1,000 in Istanbul, the nation’s largest metropolis.

Monday’s quake was the best magnitude since one other magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Erzincan province in 1939, killing greater than 30,000.