°®Âþµº

Forty-eight hours since the first 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck close to the Turkish city of Gaziantep, search operations are continuing with families searching for loved ones or grieving among the rubble of their collapsed homes.

The tragedy has left over 11,000 people dead across Turkey and Syria, with survivors afraid to re-enter buildings that are still standing due to aftershocks.

Despite being one of the most seismically active regions in the world, a quake of this force has not been seen in modern-day Syria or Turkey for several centuries.

"The last earthquake of an equivalent magnitude was the  1202 Damascus earthquake, whose magnitude ranged from 7.4 to 7.6 and resulted in an estimated 30,000 deaths," according to The Syria Report. 

Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings had been flattened in cities across a vast border region.

For Syrians already plagued by war and a recent cholera outbreak, this has only intensified their suffering.

There have been some glimmers of hope as survivors are pulled out of the rubble, but it remains a time of overwhelming distress and mourning.