WATCH: Shocking Video of Building Collapsing Like House Of Cards After Turkey Earthquake

ISTANBUL: Shocking videos and images showing the destruction and chaos unleashed by three power earthquakes have surfaced on social media as rescuers in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria continued their search through the frigid night into Tuesday, hoping to pull more survivors from the rubble. The combined death toll due to the powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that first rocked central turkey on Monday morning has risen to 3,800 people and toppled thousands of buildings across a wide region.

Authorities feared the death toll from Monday's pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria's 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.

Survivors cried out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully pulled away slabs of concrete and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones.

The quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon. Multiple aftershocks followed the most powerful earthquake in nearly a century. Social media videos showed multiple collapsed buildings with terrified locals huddling on the streets.

WATCH: Shocking Video Of Building Collapsing in Turkey After Earthquake

 

Urfa da artci sonrasi yikilan bina...#deprem #Urfa #earthquake pic.twitter.com/1mbOZM8hpF — & (@doganatillla) February 6, 2023

 

In one such clip, an entire multi-storey building collapses like a house of cards in Sanliurfa province in Turkey in one of the aftershocks. Authorities said 16 structures collapsed in Sanliurfa and 34 in Osmaniye, reported news agency Reuters.

There are no immediate reports about whether there was any person inside the building. Broadcasters TRT and Haberturk showed videos of people picking through building wreckage, moving stretchers and seeking survivors in the city of Kahramanmaras, where it was still dark. Meanwhile, a second powerful quake hit Turkey on Monday with a magnitude of 7.5 that scared the locals even more. 

The first earthquake that hit on Monday morning is the largest ever to hit Turkey in at least 100 years, the news agency AFP reported.  In Turkey, entire sections of cities populated by Syrian refugees have been wiped out. The earthquake struck near Gaziantep, a Turkish city with a population of around 2 million. More than 40 aftershocks followed and they were felt even in Egypt and Cyprus.

The quake hit at depth of 11 miles (18 kilometres) and was centred in southern Turkey, near the northern border of Syria, according to the US Geological Survey. Many aftershocks rocked the two countries since the initial quake. In the first 11 hours, the region had felt 13 significant aftershocks with a magnitude of at least 5, said Alex Hatem, a USGS research geologist.