Governments and international organisations have responded with offers of support after an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria. Hundreds of people have been killed.

After a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey's Kahramanmaraş area, search and rescue teams from major cities all over Turkey flocked there to provide much-needed assistance to those still trapped beneath the rubble.

The total number of collapsed buildings in Turkey due to the earthquake stands at 1,718, reports Al Jazeera quoting Vice President Fuat Otkay.

A runway at Turkey's Hatay Airport split in half after a major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria today.

"It was extremely horrific and terrifying," said Alaa Nafi, a resident of Idlib city in Syria, while describing the earthquake as "extremely horrific and terrifying".

A major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria today. More than 500 people were killed and hundreds injured as buildings collapsed across the region. Here are some photos of the major earthquake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning.

There is no damage to the Kerkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries oil from Iraq to Turkey, or the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries oil across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, an energy official told Reuters news agency.

Some of the world's most deadly earthquakes in the past two decades are listed below, after a 7.8 magnitude quake struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday and killed hundreds of people.

The European Union is sending rescue teams and preparing further help for Turkey after a major earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, the bloc's crisis management commissioner said Monday.

The healthcare system in Syria is "overwhelmed" by the number of people in need of medical attention, especially as some hospitals have been damaged by the quake, Mazen Kiwara, Middle East regional director for the Syrian American Medical Society, told Al Jazeera.

Aftershocks following an earthquake as large as the one in Turkey that killed at least 500 people in Turkey and Syria, can continue for "several days, several weeks, maybe even several months."

Multi-storey apartment buildings full of residents were among the 5,606 structures reduced to rubble in Turkey, while Syria announced dozens of collapses, as well as damage to archaeological sites in Aleppo.

New Zealand's deadly flood emergency continued on Sunday after heavy rainfall hit the country's north island, causing landslides, flash floods and knocking out roads.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 struck northwest Iran near the border with Turkey on Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 300, state media reported.

Human trafficking cases in Bangladesh and the Philippines increased after devastating cyclones and typhoons displaced millions, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today.

An offshore 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit near eastern Indonesia's Maluku islands today, the US Geological Survey reported, triggering a tsunami warning.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island early today, the US Geological Survey reported.

The world's oceans, which have absorbed most of the excess heat caused by humanity's carbon pollution, continued to see record-breaking temperatures last year, according to research published Wednesday.

Indonesia was struck by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday off the Tanimbar islands, prompting panicked residents in the area to flee their homes, although a tsunami warning was lifted after three hours and initial reports indicated limited damage.

In September, geo bags were placed within 300 metres of Karkhana river in Patuakhali’s Baufal upazila to protect from river erosion.