Two more earthquakes jolt Turkey as death toll crosses 5,000

Two more massive earthquakes struck Turkey on Monday, hours after the first jolt of magnitude 7.8. More than 5,000 people have been killed in less than 24 hours and thousands other are injured.

The second quake of 7.5 magnitude struck at 1:45p.m. local time. The second jolt was reportedly felt as far apart as the Turkish capital Ankara and the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Irbil.

The third one measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale hit the country and wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

Tremors from aftershocks continued throughout the day and were felt as far as Beirut in Lebanon and in Iraq's Duhok and Erbil. At least 810 people died in rebel and government-controlled parts of Syria, state media and medical sources said.

The head of Syria's National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, called it "the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre".

Earthquake was also felt in Lebanon and Syria

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. The earthquake was also felt in Lebanon and Syria.

Syria's state media reported that some buildings collapsed in the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama.

- Collapsed homes in Syria -

The first quake struck at 04:17 am (0117 GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 kilometres (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is home to around two million people, the US Geological Survey said.

The Danish geological institute said the quake tremors were felt as far away as Greenland. (With agency inputs)