DARKUSH, Syria – At a hospital in north-west Syria, Mr Osama Abdel Hamid was holding back tears as he recalled on Monday the massive earthquake that toppled his home just hours earlier.

“We were fast asleep when we felt a huge earthquake,” he said at the Al-Rahma hospital in Idlib province, where he was being treated for a head injury.

The magnitude-7.8 pre-dawn quake – with its epicentre near the Turkish city of Gaziantep – wiped out entire sections of cities in Turkey and war-ravaged Syria, killing over 1,700 people in their sleep.

Recalling when it shook the village of Azmarin, near Syria’s border with Turkey, Mr Abdel Hamid said: “I woke up my wife and children, and we ran towards the exit door. We opened the door, and suddenly the entire building collapsed.”

Within moments, Mr Abdel Hamid found himself under the rubble of the four-storey building.

All his neighbours died, but the family made it out alive.

“The walls collapsed over us, but my son was able to get out,” Mr Abdel Hamid said. “He started screaming and people gathered around, knowing there were survivors, and they pulled us out from under the rubble.”

They were taken to the hospital in Darkush, a town several kilometres to the south along the Turkish border.

The facility soon had to take in patients far beyond its capacity and received at least 30 dead bodies.

An AFP photographer saw multiple ambulances arriving at Al-Rahma one after the other, carrying casualties, including many children.

“The situation is bad,” said Dr Majid Ibrahim, a general surgeon at the hospital, where by late morning some 150 people injured in the quake had arrived.

“A lot of people are still under the debris of the buildings,” he said. “We need urgent help for the area, especially medical help.”

Many ‘still trapped’

At least 716 people were killed across Syria, including hundreds who had died in the Syrian rebel-held north-west.

In one crowded hospital room, those injured were lying on beds, some with bandages on their heads and others treated for fractures and bruises.

On one of the beds, a boy whose head was covered in a bandage was sleeping next to another patient.

And in another room, a young girl was crying as she received an injection, her hand in a cast.

Mr Mohammad Barakat, 24, was being treated for a broken leg.

“I took my children and got out of the house,” recalled the father of four, lying in bed with wounds covering parts of his face.

“My house is an old one,” he said. “So I got scared it might collapse on us. The walls of the neighbouring houses began collapsing when we were out in the street.”

Worse than war

The earthquake hit near Gaziantep in south-eastern Turkey at a depth of about 17.9km, the US Geological Survey said.

Tremors were also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus.

In the town of Sarmada, in the countryside of Idlib province, a block of buildings was levelled. The remains of solar panels and water tanks, as well as mattresses and blankets, were scattered above the ruins.

An AFP photographer saw rescuers starting to clear the rubble and removing big pieces of concrete in the hope of finding survivors.

Mr Anas Habbash said he “ran down the stairs like crazy”, carrying his son and ushering his pregnant wife outside of the apartment building in the northern city of Aleppo. “Once we got to the street, we saw dozens of families in shock and fear,” the 37-year-old said.

Some knelt down to pray and others started crying, “as if it were Judgment Day”.

“I haven’t had that feeling all through the years of the war” in Syria since 2011, Mr Habbash said.

“This was much more difficult than shells and bullets.” AFP