New Delhi: The shocking visuals of the powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday have emerged on social media. A Turkish official said the death toll from the earthquake is now at 284, bringing the overall death toll in Turkey and Syria to 568, news agency AP reported.
One of the videos on the platform shows multiple apartment buildings collapsing after a powerful earthquake in southern Turkey.
A daylight video that appeared on the Internet after the earthquake showed massive destruction in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey where the buildings can be seen turned into rubbles amid a frantic search for survivors in cities and towns across the region.
One of the users who shared the horrifying sight of the destruction said 'it looks like a war zone.'
One of the visuals shows a victim stuck under the rubble urging for help.
People are stuck under rubble while sending out live streams or videos requesting help.
Users are also appalled to see the scale of devastation in the videos.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that "search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched" to the areas hit by the quake. "We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” he wrote on Twitter.
Six aftershocks followed the main shock and he urged people not to enter damaged buildings due to the risks, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
The White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defence, declared northwestern region of Syria a "disaster area" following the quake, as per CNN. The northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey, is controlled by anti-government forces amid a bloody civil war that began in 2011.