Over 3,400 people were killed by a strong earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria. It was deemed by scientists to be the strongest earthquake in more than a century, and it also caused building destruction and sent shock waves as far away as Greenland.

Several Turkish cities were utterly destroyed by the 7.8-magnitude night tremor, which was followed by a slightly milder some hours later. Rescue workers and residents have been searching through piles of metal and concrete in numerous places for survivors and extricating victims from the rubble.

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Antakya Hatay Airport Runway split in two:

The main runway at Hatay Airport serving the cities of Antakya and Iskenderun in Turkey was split in half by the strong earthquakes that occurred there on Monday, forcing an immediate halt to all airline operations. A terrifying video posted by a news outlet in the UK shows the runway being divided in half. Watch it here:

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The first significant earthquake in northwest Syria and central Turkey had a Richter scale value of 7.8. Since that morning, there were two more earthquakes in Turkey, measuring 7.6 and 6.0.

The earthquake, which had its epicenter north of Gaziantep, the Turkish province’s capital, also had an impact on Cairo. On both sides of the border, it took place in a region that has been impacted by Syria’s civil war for more than ten years.

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The country, which periodically experiences earthquakes, is traversed by significant fault lines. Around 18,000 people were killed in a comparable powerful earthquake that rocked northwest Turkey in 1999.

In the initial 10 hours of the disaster, authorities recorded more than 50 aftershocks. They have forewarned that the unrest will last for several more days.