Powerful Earthquake Strikes Turkey and Syria, Killing More Than 1,300 People.

A strong earthquake shook southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday, killing more than 1,300 people and destroying thousands of buildings, Turkish and Syrian authorities said.

The 7.8-magnitude quake was felt across four countries with multiple aftershocks, rocking an area that houses millions of Turkish citizens, displaced Syrians and refugees, in Turkey’s worst seismic event in decades. An earthquake was also felt in Lebanon and Israel, authorities said.

Turkey’s disaster and emergency management authority said the earthquake struck at 4:17 a.m. local time and was centered near the small town of Pazarcik, near Gaziantep in the region of Turkey’s border with Syria.

The earthquake killed at least 900 people across a swath of southern Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, with almost 5,400 wounded and more than 2,800 buildings collapsed. Search teams had rescued almost 2,500 people from caught under debris.