The quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.

A major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, killing more than 500 people and injuring hundreds as buildings collapsed across the region, triggering searches for survivors in the rubble.

"We were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of us at home. Two sons of mine are still in the rubble, I'm waiting for them," said one woman, her arm broken and wounds on her face as she spoke in an ambulance near the wreckage of the seven-story block where she lived in Diyarbakir.

In Syria, already devastated by more than 11 years of civil war, a government health official said more than 237 people had been killed and some 600 injured, most in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo, and Latakia, where numerous buildings tumbled down.

Video source - 301 The Arab World/Telegram