More than 1,300 people have died after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in Türkiye and Syria and the death toll continues to climb.
Another quake hit the region with a magnitude of 7.5, hours later.
Take a look back at Monday's events in our live blog.
Key events
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Live updates
As it stands - death toll, injuries
By Caitlyn Davey
We're going to wrap up the blog for today but here's the current update on what's happened.
- Rescue efforts are underway in Türkiye and Syria
- Death toll is expected to rise according to World Health Organization, it's currently sitting at more than 1,300
- There were two earthquakes, one registering at 7.8 magnitude over night and a second on Monday afternoon registering at 7.6
- More than 45 countries have offered assistance and aid
'I thought it will never stop': woman in Syria recalls fear during earthquake
By Caitlyn Davey
In Diyarbakir, Reuters journalists saw dozens of rescue workers searching through a mound of debris, all that was left of a big building, hauling off bits of wreckage as they looked for survivors. Occasionally they raised their hands and called for quiet, listening for sounds of life.
Men carried a girl wrapped in blankets from a collapsed building in the city.
"We woke up to a big noise and severe shaking. There were two aftershocks right after that," said Meryem, 29, from the southeastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre.
"I was so scared, thought it will never stop. I took some things for my one-year old son and left the building."
Orphanage in Sarmada destroyed, one orphan killed
By Caitlyn Davey
One orphaned child was killed in the earthquake at the Sarmada Orphanage in Idlib and five more were injured.
Hospitals inundated in rebel-held Syria
By Caitlyn Davey
A steady stream of injured were flowing into an overwhelmed hospital in the town of Darkush, in rebel-held northwestern Syria.
Mothers hovered over crying children.
Amid the chaos, one man sat with a dazed expression, his face covered with abrasions.
The man, Osama Abdul Hamid, had barely made it out alive with his wife and four children from his apartment building in the nearby village of Azmarin. Many of their neighbours were not so lucky.
“The building is four stories, and from three of them, no one made it out,” Abdul Hamid said, breaking down in tears.
“God gave me a new lease on life.”
Hospitals and clinics were flooded with injured.
In the enclave, centered in Idlib province, many of the displaced live in dire conditions in makeshift camps.
Many others there and in neighboring government-held areas are housed in buildings weakened by past bombings and left even more vulnerable to shocks from earthquakes.
The quake caused total and partial damage to buildings in at least 58 villages, towns and cities in northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
World Health Organization expects 'significant jump' in death toll
By Caitlyn Davey
The World Health Organization (WHO) expects a significant jump in the death toll in the coming days.
"I think we can expect the death toll to increase significantly," Rick Brennan, the WHO's regional emergency director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told Reuters.
"There's been a lot of building collapses and it will increase more significantly around the epicentre of the earthquake."
Brennan said WHO was boosting its staff in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the epicentre of the earthquake, and exploring its options to send emergency medical teams to the area.
He said rescue efforts were being hampered by aftershocks from the initial quake.
"It's harder for the rescue teams to get in there to extract people," he said.
"Buildings that may have sustained some damage but remain functional can then get another insult and they can collapse."
Reuters
It's believed ex-Premier League player Christian Atsu is trapped in the rubble
By Caitlyn Davey
The Ghanian national who formerly played for Chelsea and Newcastle United EPL teams is believed to be among those trapped under the rubble.
Atsu plays for Turkish club Hataysport which had a game at the New Hatay Stadium in Antakya on Sunday. Local media reports that Atsu along with Hataysport sporting director Taner Savut are trapped under the rubble in Kahramanmaraş.
UN's OCHA says death toll in north west Syria has risen to 255
By Caitlyn Davey
At least 255 people were killed and 811 injured in north west Syria as a result of the strong earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey on Monday, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) said.
OCHA spokesperson Madevi Sun-Suon told Reuters the agency expected the casualty figures to increase as many people remained stuck under the rubble amid a response effort being hampered by tough weather conditions.
The agency had also recorded at least 170 buildings damaged in north west Syria, the spokesperson said.
EU confirms 10 member states to provide search teams
By Caitlyn Davey
The European Union’s top foreign policy official says ten member states are providing urban search and rescue teams to help Türkiye deal with massive earthquake damage.
In a joint statement, High Representative Josep Borrell and the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic said teams have been mobilised from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania to support the first responders on the ground.
Italy, Spain, and Slovakia have offered their rescue teams to Türkiye as well.
They said the EU’s Copernicus satellite system had also been activated to provide emergency mapping services.
Greece and the Czech Republic announced details of their rescue missions, and are sending rescuers, rescue dogs, specialized vehicles, structural engineers, doctors and seismic planning experts.
AP
Death toll in Türkiye rises to 1,014
By Caitlyn Davey
That's up from the previous count of 912.
Earthquake victims receive treatment
By Caitlyn Davey
Earthquake victims receive medical treatment at a hospital in northern Syria.
Tremors felt as far as Greenland
By Caitlyn Davey
That's according to the Danish Geological Institute, which says the earthquake tremors were felt more than 5,000km.
Türkiye's lira hits record low
By Caitlyn Davey
Türkiye's lira hit a fresh record low and its stock markets tumbled on Monday as the major earthquake added to pressures from a strong dollar, geopolitical risks and surprise inflation readings out of the country.
The country's main equities benchmark .XU100 dropped as much as 4.6% with banks .XBANK tumbling more than 5% before paring some losses with key indexes down around 2.5% by 0910 GMT.
"The tragic events with southern part of Turkey being hit by a powerful earthquake is source of additional uncertainty ahead of crucial elections that most likely are going to be held in May," said Piotr Matys, senior FX analyst at In Touch Capital Markets.
Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop is on the ground now
By Caitlyn Davey
Here's a quick TL;DR if you have just joined us.
'We do not know how high the number of dead will rise' says Erdogan
By Caitlyn Davey
In a televised address, Erdogan announced that Türkiye's death toll had reached 912, adding that about 5,400 people were injured, while around 2,470 people were rescued from collapsed structures.
“Because the debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings in the earthquake zone, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise,” Erdogan said.
“Our hope is that we recover from this disaster with the least loss of life possible," he added.
“I pray that God protects us and all humanity from such natural disasters.”
Rain hampers rescue efforts in Syria's Hama
By Caitlyn Davey
Rescuers in Syria's Hama continue working despite difficult weather conditions to retrieve those trapped under collapsed buildings.
Members of civil defense teams and citizens were seen pulling dead bodies from under the rubble, and rushing the injured to hospitals.
Second earthquake was not aftershock from first, hits 7.6 magnitude
By Caitlyn Davey
Türkiye’s disaster management agency has reported the new earthquake of magnitude 7.6 occurred close to the epicenter of Monday’s previous deadly quake, which also generated dozens of aftershocks.
The US Geological Survey recorded the magnitude of the latest shock that occurred around 1024 GMT at 7.5 magnitude, with a depth of just 10 kilometers. Shallow earthquakes cause more damage.
It put the temblor near the town of Ekinozu, Türkiye, also close to the southeastern city of Gaziantep which has a population of 2 million people and where the temperatures on Monday were hovering just above freezing.
Orhan Tatar, an official from the Turkish disaster agency, told reporters that the two quakes were independent of each other.
He said hundreds of aftershocks were expected after both.
The aftershock was felt as far as the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, where people took to social media to post footage of swaying curtains, while employees working in some high-rise buildings in the capital, Nicosia, quickly rushed outside.
Ukraine says it will send emergency responders to Türkiye
By Caitlyn Davey
Ukraine said Monday it was ready to send emergency responders to Türkiye following a deadly earthquake there that also left hundreds dead in neighbouring Syria.
"Ukraine stands ready to send a large group of rescue workers to Türkiye to assist crisis response. We are working closely with the Turkish side to coordinate their deployment," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.
Syria's state death toll in government area rises to 371
By Caitlyn Davey
It was previously 326.
Rescue efforts continue across the region.
'Working with our hands since 3am': Survivor says 12 families remain trapped in building
By Caitlyn Davey
Some rescue efforts have taken a more simplistic approach as teams across the countries work around the clock.
A survivor in Syria who declined to share his name with Reuters was on the ground at a site. "There are 12 families (trapped here) and no one managed to get out," he said. "They are all inside here.
"So far no one has come here to see where people are. There is no civil defence.
"We have been working with our hands since 3am.”
