Daily Bangla Times : The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century struck Turkey and Syria early Monday, killing over 1,400 people in their sleep, levelling buildings and causing tremors felt as far away as Greenland.

The 7.8-magnitude night-time tremor, followed hours later by a slightly smaller one, wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

The head of Syria's National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, called it "the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre".

At least 560 people died in rebel and government-controlled parts of Syria, state media and medical sources said.

Another 912 people died in Turkey, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose handling of one of the biggest disasters of his two decades in power could prove consequential to his re-election chances in polls due in May.

The initial quake was followed by more than 50 aftershocks, including a 7.5-magnitude tremor that jolted the region in the middle of search and rescue work on Monday afternoon.

AFP reporters and witnesses felt the second jolt as far apart as the Turkish capital Ankara and the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Irbil.

Shocked survivors in Turkey rushed out into the snow-covered streets in their pyjamas, watching rescuers dig through the debris of damaged homes with their hands.

"Seven members of my family are under the debris," Muhittin Orakci, a stunned survivor in Turkey's mostly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, told AFP.

"My sister and her three children are there. And also her husband, her father-in-law and her mother-in-law."

The rescue was being hampered by a winter blizzard that covered major roads in ice and snow. Officials said the quake made three major airports in the area inoperable, further complicating deliveries of vital aid.

Television images showed shocked people in Turkey standing in the snow in their pyjamas, watching rescuers dig through the debris of damaged homes.

The quake struck at 04:17 am local time (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 kilometres, the US agency said, with a 6.7-magnitude aftershock striking 15 minutes later.

The quake, which struck in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon. Turkey's AFAD emergencies service centre put the first quake's magnitude at 7.4. The earthquake was one of the most powerful to hit the region in at least a century.

A man walks past by a collapsed building after an earthquake in Malatya, Turkey February 6, 2023 Reuters. "I convey my best wishes to all our citizens who were affected by the earthquake," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted.

"We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage."

Kahramanmaraş'ta meydana gelen ve ülkemizin pek çok yerinde hissedilen depremden etkilenen tüm vatandaşlarımıza geçmiş olsun dileklerimi iletiyorum. İlgili tüm birimlerimiz AFAD koordinasyonunda teyakkuz halindedir.

The earthquake levelled dozens of buildings across major cities of southern Turkey as well as neighbouring Syria, a country gripped by more than a decade of violence that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of people.

Images on Turkish television and social media showed rescuers digging through the rubble of levelled buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras and neighbouring Gaziantep.

People search through rubble following an earthquake in Diyarbakir, Turkey February 6, 2023 Reuters A fire lit up the night sky in one image from Kahramanmaras, although its origin remained unclear.

NTV television said buildings also crumbled in the cities of Adiyaman, Malatya and Diyarbakir. CNN Turk television said the quake was also felt across parts of central Turkey and the capital Ankara.

The tremor lasted about a minute and shattered windows, according to a witness in Diyarbakir, 350km to the east, where a security official said at least 17 buildings collapsed.

Authorities said 16 structures collapsed in Sanliurfa and 34 in Osmaniye. Broadcasters TRT and Haberturk showed footage of people picking through building wreckage, moving stretchers and seeking survivors in Kahramanmaras, where it was still dark.

Rescuers work at the site of a damaged building, following an earthquake, in rebel-held Azaz, Syria February 6, 2023 Reuters

"Our primary job is to carry out the search and rescue work and to do that all our teams are on alert," Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.

The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) said the quake struck at a depth of 10km, while the EMSC monitoring service said it was assessing the risk of a tsunami.

People staying in their cars near Beirut's biggest parks (Horsh Beirut) post the #earthquake that hit #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/hwz4imknhn

The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported a series of further earthquakes following the initial tremor, which it put at a magnitude of 7.8. There was a quake measuring 6.7 in Gaziantep and another of 5.6 in the city's Nurdag area.

Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) put the magnitude of the quake at 7.4 near Kahramanmaras and the larger city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

Tremors were also felt in the Turkish capital of Ankara, 460km northwest of the epicentre, and in Cyprus, where police reported no damage.

The area is regularly hit by strong earthquakes. "The earthquake struck in a region that we feared. There is serious widespread damage," Kerem Kinik, the chief of the Turkish Red Crescent relief agency, told Haberturk, issuing an appeal for blood donations.

'Biggest earthquake': Syrian state television reported that a building near Latakia, on the west coast of Syria, had collapsed.

Pro-government media said several buildings had partially collapsed in Hama, central Syria, with civil defence and firefighters working to pull survivors out of the rubble.

Raed Ahmed, who heads Syria's National Earthquake Centre, told pro-government radio that this was "historically, the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre".

Naci Gorur, an earthquake expert with Turkey's Academy of Sciences, urged local officials to immediately check the region's dams for cracks to avert potentially catastrophic floodings.