More than eighteen hundred people have been killed and over five thousand injured as a 7.8 magnitude deadly earthquake hit Turkey, Syria and adjoining centres this morning. 

Millions of people across Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq and Cyprus felt the earthquake, the epicentre was near the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

A rescue operation is under way across much of southern Turkey and northern Syria following a huge earthquake.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said over thousand people were killed and more than thousand buildings had collapsed.

Tayyip Erdogan says he could not predict how much the death toll would rise as search and rescue efforts continued.

Officials in Syria said over seven hundred people are dead as several buildings collapsed there.