DEATH TOLL RISES: At least 2,300 people are confirmed dead after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake...

DEATH TOLL RISES: At least 2,300 people are confirmed dead after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria.

Hundreds were still believed to be trapped under rubble, and the toll was expected to rise as rescue workers searched mounds of wreckage.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday's quake at 7.8. Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude one struck more than 60 miles away. An official from Turkey's disaster management agency said it was a new earthquake, not an aftershock, though its effects were not immediately clear. Hundreds of aftershocks were expected after the two temblors, Orhan Tatar told reporters.

Thousands of buildings were reported collapsed in a wide area extending from Syria's cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey's Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles to the northeast. A hospital collapsed in the Mediterranean coastal city of Iskenderun, but casualties were not immediately known, Turkey's vice president.