More than 2,400 deaths in Turkey and Syria

A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeast Turkey on Monday morning, crumbling homes, killing more than 2,400 people and leaving devastation across a wide swath of the country and into northern Syria. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed the magnitude of the pre-dawn quake and said a second temblor, registering 7.5 on the Richter scale, struck just hours after the first one and not far away.

Turkish authorities said more than 1,500 people were killed across 10 of the country’s provinces, with almost 10,000 more injured. In the government-held areas of neighboring Syria, which is still being rocked by violence from a decade-long civil war, the Health Ministry said more than 556 people were killed. Civilian rescue agencies that operate in Syria’s rebel-held northwest said at least 430 people were killed there, with hundreds more injured.

Frantic search efforts were still underway in both countries, with rescuers digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings to find any survivors.

The first powerful quake struck before dawn on a rainy and snowy night. It was felt as far away as Cairo, Cyprus, Lebanon and even in Greenland and Denmark. 

Many nations immediately offered assistance, including the United States, Germany, France, Greece and Ukraine and Russia.