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AT LEAST 22 people have been killed and 725 injured after a powerful earthquake and mini-tsunami hit Turkey and Greece.
Horrifying pictures show the mass devastation as rescuers desperately search the rubble for survivors after the magnitude-7.0 tremor rocked the coasts and islands around the Aegean Sea.
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The quake's epicentre was 11 miles north of the Greek island Samos off the coast of Turkey, a region popular with Brit tourists.
Izmir, a Turkish city with a population of 4.4million, bore the brunt of the destruction.
At least 20 buildings collapsed and a mini-tsunami swept through coastal areas which swept a flood of debris - including cars - inland and left fish stranded as it receded.
People were left running for their lives as the massive surge burst through sea defences and turned the streets into raging torrents of salt water.
Rescuers are now facing a race against time to pull anymore survivors buried beneath the rubble of collapsed structures.
At least 70 people have been rescued from under the rubble.
Felt in both Istanbul and Athens, the quake also created a diplomatic opening for the two historic rivals, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis placing a rare call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to offer his condolences and support.
The tremor was also felt across the eastern Greek islands, such as Mykonos and Kos, and tsunami warnings were issued to many beachgoers.
Two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, were killed when a wall collapsed on the island of Samos.
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Turkey's health ministry said 38 ambulances, two ambulance helicopters and 35 medical rescue teams were working in Izmir.
Parts of entire apartments, including toys, pillows and shattered appliances, spilled out on the streets, where survivors huddled in tears, many too shocked to speak.
Aerial footage showed entire city blocks turned to rubble.
"I thought: Is it going to end? It felt like 10 minutes, like it was never going to end," said Gokhan Kan, a 32-year-old courier.
"I was terrified not for myself in that moment but for my family, my wife and four-year-old son."
Izmir's mayor Tunc Soyer told CNN Turk that 20 buildings had collapsed, with officials focusing their rescue efforts on 17 of them.
Turkey's disaster relief agency reported 20 deaths and nearly 800 injuries, while in Greece two teenagers died on their way home from school on Samos when a wall collapsed.
The scenes of devastation suggested the toll could rise.
As a precaution, one Izmir hospital rolled some of its patients -- still strapped into their beds and hooked up to drips -- out on the street.
Turkey's religious affairs directorate opened its mosques to help shelter some of those left homeless by the disaster.
Images on social media showed water rushing through the streets of one of the towns near Izmir from an apparent sea surge.
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Thick white plumes of smoke towered over various parts of the city where large buildings had collapsed.
Rescuers, helped by residents and sniffer dogs, used chainsaws to try and force their way through the rubble of one destroyed seven-floor building.
At another site, Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli managed to establish mobile phone contact with a girl buried under the debris.
"We ask you to remain calm," he told her in televised footage. "We will try to lift the concrete block and reach you."
NTV television said up to six people were trapped at the site, including the girl's cousin.
The region's governor said 70 people had been pulled out alive by Friday evening, although how many more were missing remained unknown by sunset.
Rescuers set up tents in a small park away from the buildings for families to spend the night in safety and relative warmth.
On the Greek island of Samos, near the quake's epicentre, people rushed out into the streets in panic.
"It was chaos," said deputy mayor Giorgos Dionysiou. "We have never experienced anything like this."
The Greek civil protection agency told Samos residents in a text message to "stay out in the open and away from buildings".
Greece and Turkey are situated in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.
The two neighbours also suffer from historically poor relations despite both being members of the NATO military alliance.
But the quake saw a spurt of what pundits immediately termed "earthquake diplomacy", with calls exchanged by their foreign ministers and then, hours later, Mitsotakis and Erdogan.
"Whatever our differences, these are times when our people need to stand together," the Greek prime minister said on Twitter.
"Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister," Erdogan tweeted in reply. "That two neighbours show solidarity in difficult times is more valuable than many things in life."
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The US State Department said Washington was "heartened" by the newfound cooperation.
France, whose President Emmanuel Macron has sparred repeatedly with Erdogan in the past year, said it stood in "full solidarity" with the two countries.
Some of the world's strongest earthquakes have been registered along a fault line that runs across Turkey to Greece.
In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey's northwest, killing more than 17,000 people, including 1,000 in Istanbul.
In Greece, the last deadly quake killed two people on the island of Kos, near Samos, in July 2017.
Some two million foreign tourists visit Izmir every year, according to data from the Aegean Touristic Enterprises and Accommodation Union.
Pictures and video posted on social media show large clouds of dust rising over the city following the earthquake.
Aerial footage on Turkey's NTV television showed entire city blocks turned to rubble.
Rescuers called for silence as they hunted for any signs of survivors, clearing boulders and other debris in a human chain.
TRT television showed rescuers being helped by residents and police using chainsaws as they tried to force their way through the rubble.
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Ilke Cide, a doctoral student who was in Izmir's Guzelbahce region during the earthquake, said he went inland after waters rose after the earthquake.
"I am very used to earthquakes... so I didn't take it very seriously at first but this time it was really scary," he said, adding the earthquake had lasted for at least 25-30 seconds.
Idil Gungor, who runs a hotel in Izmir's Seferihisar district, told broadcaster NTV that people were cleaning the debris after the floodwaters receded.
She said fish had washed up on the garden of the hotel, around 50 metres from the shore.
The United States Geological Survey confirmed the enormous tremor was felt 190 miles away in Athens and some 200 miles away in Istanbul.
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Following the news of the earthquake, Greece's Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias reached out to his Turkish counterpart and offered to send some members of their disaster relief team to Izmir.
“If the governments of these countries so wish, French aid can be immediately dispatched on the spot,” Mr Darmanin said.
It comes after tensions between the two countries following the publication of a cartoon of the Turkish president in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
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The mayor of Izmir's Seferihisar, Ismail Yetiskin, has said the earthquake caused a rise in sea levels.
"There seems to be a small tsunami," he told broadcaster NTV.
Residents fled their homes, while some rockfalls were reported and a mini-tsunami surged into Samos.
One of the fallen buildings on the island is the church of Panagia Theotokou in Karlovasi.
"The walls of some houses have crumbled and several buildings are damaged," the island's deputy mayor Michalis Mitsios was quoted as saying by public broadcaster ERT.
"It was chaos," added fellow deputy mayor Giorgos Dionysiou. "We have never experienced anything like this."
The island's airport was also closed as a precaution.
The Greek civil protection agency told Samos's residents in a text message to "stay out in the open and away from buildings".
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President Erdogan tweeted that he was ready to help "with all the means available to our state".
Turkish environment and urban planning minister Murat Kurum confirmed people remain trapped under the wreckage in Izmir.
Witness Teoman Cüneyt Acar told Haberturk: "I was in a grocery store in Gaziemir during the earthquake.
"I saw that all my belongings started to fall. My mother was caught in the house. I saw my mother at the street door and everyone was outside.
"I entered the house during the aftershocks and I saw that there were cracks in the columns.
"According to him, some old buildings are in ruins. The shaking lasted 40-45 seconds."
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Witnesses said people flooded onto the streets in the popular tourist city after the quake struck.
Turkish officials and broadcasters have called on people to stay off the roads so emergency vehicles can move quickly to the disaster zone.
The quake struck at around 11.50am GMT and was felt along Turkey's Aegean coast and the northwestern Marmara region.
Turkeys Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency said the earthquake was centered in the Aegean Sea at a depth of 10.3 miles.
Seismologist Efthymios Lekkas told Greek state television ERT that it was still too early to say whether this was the main earthquake.
"It was a very big earthquake, it's difficult to have a bigger one," said Lekkas.
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The earthquake is an event that is evolving, Lekkas said, adding that damage had been reported in parts of Samos.
A tsunami warning was issued, with residents of the Samos area told to stay away from the coastline.
It read: "Stay away from the coast. Danger from high waves due to earthquake."
Aftershocks continue to rattle the area.
Water rose above the dock in the main harbor of Samos and flooded the street.
The regional governor of the Samos region, Yiannis Stamoulis, said no injuries had been reported on the island.
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The chief of Samos hospital workers union told: The Greek City Times: "A few minutes ago we experienced a very big earthquake similar to that Samos has been experiencing for many years.
"People are panicking. They have gone out in the squares, in the streets."
He added: “It was an earthquake that lasted several minutes. Very strong."
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Greece and Turkey are both situated in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.
In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Turkey's northwest, killing more than 17,000 people, including 1,000 in Istanbul.
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Another quake in 2011 in the southeastern province of Van resulted in more than 600 deaths.
In Greece, the last deadly quake killed two people on the island of Kos, near Samos, in July 2017.
Turkey earthquake – 5.4 magnitude quake hits country leaving at least five injured and causing some destruction to