• The 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time.
• Officials in Turkey confirmed at least 17 deaths.
• There have also been numerous casualties recorded in Syria.

A powerful earthquake struck a vast area in south-eastern Turkey near the Syrian border, killing dozens and trapping many more.

The 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) in the city of Gaziantep, according to the US Geological Survey.

Officials in Turkey confirmed at least 17 deaths. There have also been numerous casualties recorded in Syria.

There are fears that the death toll will skyrocket in the next hours.

Many buildings have collapsed, and rescue workers are searching for survivors.

Suleymon Soylu, Turkey’s Interior Minister, reported ten cities were affected: Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Kilis.

The city’s shopping center collapsed.

The tremor was felt in Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus as well.

“I was writing something and just all of a sudden the entire building started shaking and yes I didn’t really know what to feel,” Mohamad El Chamaa, a student in the Lebanese capital Beirut, told the sources.

“I was right next to the window so I was just scared that they might shatter. It went on for four-five minutes and it was pretty horrific. It was mind-blowing,” he said.

Rushdi Abualouf, a BBC producer in Gaza, reported 45 seconds of shaking in the house where he was sleeping.

The magnitude of the quake was estimated by Turkish seismologists to be 7.4 on the Richter scale.

They reported that a second tremor struck the area barely minutes later.

Turkey is located in one of the most active seismic zones on the planet.

More than 17,000 people were murdered in 1999 when a strong earthquake shook the country’s northwest.

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