Search and rescue operations are underway as many are fear trapped in the rubble. (Photo: Omer Yasin Ergin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images).

More than 200 people were killed in Turkey and Syria as a strong earthquake shattered buildings and sent tremors as far as Lebanon, according to multiple media reports.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest earthquakes to hit Turkey in more than 100 years, collapsed buildings and sending residents running into the streets, the CNN reports.

It struck just after 4 a.m. Monday morning local time, 23 kilometers east of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province in the southern Turkey, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Nurdagi is located along the Turkey-Syria border, and the quake was felt in several countries across the region, including Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

At least 76 people were killed and more than 440 injured in Turkey, according to the country’s disaster management agency AFAD. But the death tolls could be far higher as rescue teams continue their search through rubble.

In neighboring Syria, at least 111 people died and more than 500 were injured, Syrian State TV reported citing the Ministry of Health. The deaths were reported in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus.

Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.

More than 17,000 people were killed in 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude quake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul. In 2011, a quake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500.