Turkey experiences an earthquake of magnitude 7.7.

On Monday, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 shook central Turkey and northwest Syria, causing hundreds of buildings to collapse and setting off a search for survivors buried under the rubble.

The quake occurred early in the winter morning and was also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus.

In my 40 years of life, I have never experienced anything like it, said Erdem, a citizen of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is close to the earthquake’s epicenter. Erdem declined to give his last name.

At least three times, we experienced “very strong shaking, like a baby in a crib.”

As authorities dispatched rescue teams and supply aircraft to the affected area and declared a “level 4 alarm” that requested international assistance, Turkey’s disaster agency reported 76 fatalities and 440 injuries.

According to Syrian state media, most of the fatalities and injuries occurred in Hama, Aleppo, and Latakia, where numerous buildings had been torn down.

Salqin, a town about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Turkish border, has seen tens of buildings collapse, according to a member of the White Helmets rescue organization in a video clip posted on Twitter.

Homes were “totally destroyed,” according to the rescuer in the video, which showed a street covered in debris.

Fighting during Syria’s nearly 12-year civil war had already caused damage to many buildings in the area.

Witnesses reported that residents of Damascus and the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli fled their buildings in case they collapsed and got into their cars.