Powerful Earthquake In Turkey: Over 100 Dead

The number of victims is constantly rising.

A powerful earthquake occurred in southeastern Turkey, near the border with Syria. More than 76 people were killed in Turkey and more than 50 in neighboring Syria. The number of victims is steadily rising, BBC reports.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred at 04:17 local time at a depth of 17.9 km, near the town of Gaziantep.

Several buildings collapsed and survivors are being searched under the rubble.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said ten cities suffered damage: Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir and Kilis.

A BBC Turkey correspondent in Diyarbakir reports that a shopping mall collapsed in the city.

Earth tremors were felt in Ankara and other Turkish cities, as well as across the region in Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria, where, like in Turkey, there were many deaths.

According to Reuters, Syrian state media reported that a large number of buildings collapsed in Aleppo province; a source in Hama's civil service said that several buildings collapsed there as well.

"Pictures had fallen from the walls in a house," Samer, a resident of Damascus, told Reuters. "I woke up terrified. We are all dressed and stand at the door."

Witnesses say people in Damascus, as well as in the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli, ran out into the streets and got into cars to drive away from their homes in case they collapsed.