3 powerful earthquakes rattle Turkey in 24 hours, death toll climbs to 1900

The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century rattled Turkey and neighbouring Syria early Monday, killing over 1,900 people in their sleep, levelling buildings, sending survivors into the snowy streets in their pyjamas, and causing tremors felt as far away as Greenland.

The 7.8-magnitude quake, that struck Turkey at 4:17 am local time, was followed hours later by a couple more strong ones. It was powerful enough to wipe out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a region occupied by scores of people who have fled conflicts like the civil war in Syria.

While, according to state media and medical sources, the quake killed at least 783 people in rebel and government-controlled parts of Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the death of another 1,121 in his country.

With Turkey's tightly-contested election on May 14, Erdogan's handling of the disaster could have a major impact on his re-election chances. He has conveyed his sympathies and requested national unity.

The initial tremor was followed by over 50 aftershocks, that rattled the region in the middle of extensive search and rescue work.

David Rothery, an earthquake expert at the Open University in Britain, has raised concerns over the danger search and rescue operations are currently prone to - "as the size of the aftershocks ... brings a risk of collapse of structures already weakened by the earlier events."

Turkey is one of the most active earthquake zones in the world. A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the country in 1999, killing over 17,000 people, including nearly 1,000 in the capital city of Istanbul. A number of experts have frequently been raising warnings against a large tremor devastating the city, which has permitted widespread building without safety precautions.