There was a powerful earthquake at night in Turkey, not far from the Syrian border. There are no clear data on the number of casualties yet, but up to 50 are reported.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred at 4:17am local time, near the city of Gaziantep. Several buildings collapsed, and there may be people left under the rubble.

According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the epicenter of the earthquake was located 27 km from Gaziantep city, whose population exceeds one million. The quake occurred at a depth of 10 km.

According to the mayor of Sanliurfa city, 16 buildings collapsed and 15 people died. According to preliminary data, 34 buildings collapsed and 5 people were killed in Osmaniye Province, and 130 buildings collapsed and three casualties' bodies were found in Malatya Province.

Building collapses occurred also in Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman, and Diyarbakir Provinces NTV television reports.

Strong devastation is recorded in neighboring Syria, too. As the state TV channel Syria reports, many buildings collapsed in some regions of the city of Aleppo in the north of the country.

The Syrian Al Watan newspaper reported that several buildings partially collapsed in the Al Arbain district of Hama.

A total of 42 casualties and more than 200 injured are reported in Syria.

Turkish authorities later reported 76 dead and 440 injured.

The minister of internal affairs of Turkey said that ten cities were affected by the earthquake.

The quake was followed by at least 22 aftershocks, the most powerful of which was 6.6 in magnitude.