Syria

Noting that India has already made preparations to provide emergency disaster relief operations and medical aid to the affected areas of Turkey and Syria, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said Kerala is also ready to provide all possible assistance in this regard.

One Indian who had gone to Turkey on a work visit is missing after a massive earthquake that has killed more than 8,500 people in the country, the government said. Ten Indians are stuck in remote parts of the country but are safe, the Foreign Ministry said, adding there are 3,000 Indians in Turkey.

Orhan Tatar, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency's general director (AFAD), said that at least 5,775 buildings collapsed after an earthquake hit Turkey.

India has sent two plane-loads of relief materials and medical teams for survivors of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria that killed over 4,000 people.

The military police prison in the town of Rajo near the Turkish border holds about 2,000 inmates, with about 1,300 of them suspected to be IS fighters. The 7.8-magnitude quake -- which was followed by dozens of aftershocks in the region -- caused damage to the prison, with walls and doors cracking.

Turkish police detained four people for 'spreading panic' on social media following the devastation caused by the massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

As soon as a disaster occurs, satellites are programmed to acquire images of the affected areas quickly. More than 60 satellites, optical or radar, can be mobilised at any given time.

Historical records of earthquakes in the region go back at least 2,000 years, to a quake in 17 CE that levelled a dozen towns. The East Anatolian Fault zone that hosted these earthquakes is at the boundary between the Arabian and Anatolian tectonic plates, which move past each other at approximately 6 to 10 mm per year.

So far, at least 2,256 emergency health personnel workers have reached earthquake-affected provinces, the health minister said. As many as 602 ambulances and two ambulance planes have been dispatched from neighboring cities.

Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said that nearly 912 people were killed and 5,383 were injured, adding that the authorities couldn't anticipate how high the death toll might advance, and rescue operation is still underway. Early Monday, a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeast Turkey and Syria.