Agencies :
The number of victims of the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria has risen to about 1,400 people in the two countries, while thousands were injured, according to a new, non-final toll, announced on Monday afternoon.
Turkey
In Turkey, the death toll from the violent earthquake that struck the southeast of the country on Monday rose to 912 dead and at least 5,385 injured, according to data published by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan said it was" impossible to predict how high the death toll will be as search and Rescue continues,"according to Reuters.
He said 45 countries had offered to help with search and rescue efforts.
"It is the largest disaster in the country since 1939," adrogan said, pointing to the collapse of 2,818 buildings, raising fears of a high death toll, while hundreds of people were killed in neighboring Syria.
Syria
In Syria, at least 473 people were killed and hundreds injured as a result of the violent earthquake that struck Syria on Monday, centered in Turkey, causing buildings in several provinces to fall on the heads of their residents, while hundreds of families are still under the rubble.
In the areas controlled by the Syrian government, the Syrian news agency (SANA) quoted Ahmed dmeiriya, Assistant Minister of health, as saying that the number of victims of the earthquake that hit the country on Monday rose to 326 deaths and 1042 injuries.
The number of victims is announced successively by the authorities, while the search for survivors under the rubble continues.
Most of the casualties were recorded in the governorates of Latakia, Tartus (west), Aleppo (North) and Hama (Center).
The official Syrian news agency (SANA) reported "the collapse of an eight-story building in the Arbaeen neighborhood" in the city of Hama, noting the work of "ambulance and civil defense teams to recover victims and injured from the rubble".
The agency quoted the director general of the National Seismological Center, Raed Ahmed, as saying: "this earthquake is the strongest... Since 1995".
State television reported that a number of buildings fell and were damaged in the cities of Latakia and Jableh on the Syrian coast.
In the areas controlled by opposition factions in the North and northwest of Syria, the White Helmets organization (Civil Defense operating in areas outside the control of Damascus) counted 147 dead and more than 340 wounded in an "inconclusive statistic".
Rescuers have confirmed that at least 147 people were killed in the opposition-controlled north-west of Syria as a result of a powerful earthquake that hit the region.
The White Helmets rescue organization wrote on Twitter that 147 had died and more than 340 were injured.
"The toll may rise because many families are still trapped (under the rubble). Our teams are at the scene looking for survivors and recovering the bodies of the dead from the rubble."
"The death toll is likely to rise significantly because there are hundreds of families under the rubble,"she said.
The Organization declared the region "completely stricken, calling on local organizations to mobilize their cadres and share work amid severe climatic conditions".
She called on"all international humanitarian organizations to intervene quickly to relieve the stricken and meet their needs".
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey on Monday at 04.17 local time (01.17 GMT) at a depth of about 17.9 km, according to the American Geological Survey Institute.
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