International Desk: At least 500 people killed and many others are missing or injured after a powerful earthquake struck southeast Turkiye and northern Syria early on Monday.

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The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.8 quake struck at a depth of 17.9 km. It reported a series of earthquakes, one of 6.7 magnitude.

Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in various cities on both sides of the border.

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Buildings toppled to the ground in Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkiye’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers to the northeast.

Also in Syria, the quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country’s long civil war. Many of them were already living in destitute conditions with little health care, with Russian-backed Syrian forces surrounding the area and sometimes carrying out airstrikes. Rescue workers said hospitals in the area were packed.

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Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.

Sun News/MR

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