Buildings reduced to rubble as cities sleep

Thousands of people died when an earthquake struck central Turkey and north-west Syria, in one of the most powerful quakes in the region in at least a century.

- Ruth Michaelson ISTANBUL and Deniz Barış Narlı

A second powerful seismic event, hours later, threatened rescue efforts. Thousands more were injured as the quake wiped out entire sections of cities in a region populated with millions who fled the civil war in Syria.

The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit in the darkness of a winter morning, was followed by a 7.7 quake in the middle of the day on Monday.

Turkey’s vice-president, Fuat Oktay, said the death toll had surpassed 1,500 people in Turkey alone by the early evening. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described Monday as the worst disaster for the country since 1939, when an earthquake killed over 32,000 people.

The death toll in government-held areas of Syria on Monday stood at 968 people, with 1,280 injured, according to data from the Damascus government. By late Monday the death toll in both countries had reached more than 2,600 and was expected to rise.