Destruction strikes as powerful earthquake rocks Turkey and Syria

A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria. (AP Photo)

Scores were killed in both countries, hundreds were injured. (AP Photo)

On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night, as buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued. (AP Photo)

The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, struck a region that has been shaped by more than a decade of civil war in Syria. Here, a Syrian man carries a dead young girl. (AP Photo)

At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said. (AP Photo)

Here, damaged vehicles sit parked in front of a collapsed building following an earthquake in Diyarbakir. (AP Photo)

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999. (AP Photo)

People walk past by a collapsed building after an earthquake in Turkey's Kahramanmaras. (Reuters)

A man walks past by a collapsed building after an earthquake in Kahramanmaras. (Reuters)

People gather in front of a hospital following an earthquake in Aleppo, Syria. (Reuters)

People sit near a collapsed building after the earthquake in Kahramanmaras. (Reuters)

A man carries the body of an earthquake victim in the Besnia village near the Turkish border, in Syria's Idlib province. (AP)