Three big earthquakes – of 7.8, 7.6 and 6.0 magnitude – hit Turkey today killing more than 2,300 people and injuring thousands. The deaths and destruction are in Turkey and neighboring Syria. The last two earthquakes hit hours after the first killer temblor of 7.8 magnitudes.

The quake, which hit in the early darkness of a winter morning, was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon. Multiple aftershocks followed the most powerful earthquake in nearly a century. Social media videos showed multiple collapsed buildings with terrified locals huddling on the streets.

The deadly earthquake Monday in Turkey, which was felt in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, was as strong as one in 1939, the most powerful one on record in Turkey.

At magnitude 7.8, Monday’s quake had the same magnitude as one that killed about 30,000 people in December 1939 in northeast Turkey, Stephen Hicks, a research fellow in seismology at Imperial College London, wrote on Twitter.

The US Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep. Seismologists said the first quake was one of the largest ever recorded in Turkey. Survivors said it took two minutes for the shaking to stop.

Twelve hours later, a second quake, which had a magnitude of 7.5, hit Turkey's Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province. An official from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said it was "not an aftershock" and was "independent" from the earlier quake.