A massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide parts of Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, killing more than 2,300 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled hundreds of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble or pancaked floors.
Authorities fear the death toll would climb as rescuers searched through tangles of metal and concrete for survivors in a region beset by more than a decade of Syria’s civil war and a refugee crisis.
The pre-dawn quake was centered in the town of Pazarcik in Turkey’s southeastern Kahramanmaras province and was followed by several powerful aftershocks.
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Thousands of buildings were toppled on both sides of the border, and the death toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched for survivors in the massive piles of rubble.
Both Turkey and Syria have declared a state of emergency.
“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,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
More than 2,800 buildings across Turkey have been completely destroyed, according to Turkey’s Emergency Management Agency, while over 1,400 buildings were demolished in Syria, according the Syrian Civil Defense Agency.
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