Powerful quakes rock Turkey and Syria, killed more than 1,600

At a Glance

A second 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Monday afternoon.
Earlier Monday, Turkey and Syria were hit by a magnitude 7.8 quake.
This brings the total death toll to 1,600

A second powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey on Monday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The second quake struck at 1:24 p.m. Monday local time (5:24 p.m. ET) about 65 miles north of Gaziantep, a Turkish provincial capital. The epicenter was about 60 miles northeast of the site of an earlier magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The toll in that quake has already climbed above 1,600 people across Turkey and Syria.

The earlier quake, a magnitude 7.8, hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Many more are thought to be trapped under the rubble of hundreds of buildings destroyed by the quake, which struck west of the city of Gaziantep in southern central Turkey.

More than two dozen aftershocks have been felt since the first earthquake hit at 4:17 a.m. Monday local time or 8:17 p.m. Sunday EST. The tremor shook buildings as far away as Israel, and people in Lebanon were jolted from their beds.

(With inputs from agencies)