The total number of deaths across Turkey and Syria has now risen close to 5,000 as a third quake with a magnitude of 5.7 struck on Tuesday morning.
Thousands more are left buried beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in freezing temperatures.
International search and rescue teams were racing last night to Turkey and Syria to help look for survivors of the earthquake, amid fears the death toll could hit 20,000.
Around 1,000 rescuers from across the globe, including 74 Brits, will join local teams trying to pull victims from the destruction.
UK relief worker Atiqur Rahman, who was in Turkey working, is helping with the search for survivors in Antakya.
The 37-year-old, who owns Yahya’s Indian Grill in Stoke, Staffordshire, escaped injury but a colleague’s son is missing.
He said: “The only way I can describe it is armageddon. There are people stuck, screaming; children dead. There are people dead in the streets. There is no electricity or gas. People are building fires on street corners.
“It’s freezing. They’re sleeping in bus shelters or under trees, anywhere away from buildings. One in three buildings have been totally knocked down.”
As of 8 am GMT on Tuesday, 3,381 have died in Turkey, plus 1,602 killed in Syria, bringing the total close to 5,000.
There were a further 20,426 injured in Turkey with 3,649 others injured in Syria.
Atiqur, who works for the charity Global Relief Trust, added: “We are trying to do what we can. I’ve been in bombed cities but nothing compares to this. This is total destruction.”
Foreign secretary James Cleverly said it was “too early” to say if other Brits are among the dead or injured. Lib Dem Lord Bruce of Bennachie called the quake “truly apocalyptic”.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan said: “Because the debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise.”
Turkey said 2,379 had been killed and 13,293 were injured, while at least 1,444 were announced dead in Syria on Monday evening, taking the total dead in both countries to 3,823.
More than 7,800 people were rescued across 10 provinces, according to Orhan Tatar, an official with Turkey’s disaster management authority.
Experts have warned deaths could potentially reach 20,000. Catherine Smallwood from the World Health Organization told AFP that "eightfold increases on the initial numbers" in similar earthquakes were common due to further collapses of buildings.
As rescuers in the Turkish city of Adana tried to reach one victim buried under rubble, he could be heard saying: “I don’t have the strength any more.”
It is not known if he survived.
Harsh low temperatures and rain storms have also added to the problems in the aftermath of the quake, with one survivor in northern Syria likening conditions to an "apocalypse".
Fears have also grown over the possible impact of Storm Barbara on recovery efforts, which is expected to bring significant snowfall and rain to large parts of Turkey over the next two days.
Describing scenes on the ground yesterday evening, legislator of Turkey’s Hatay province Huseyin Yayman said: “Many are trapped.
“Many buildings are damaged. People are on the streets. It’s raining, it’s winter.”
The quake struck at 4.30 am yesterday, destroying buildings from Syria’s war-torn Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles northeast. Neighbourhoods were wiped out in seconds.
The initial 7.8 magnitude horror was followed by aftershocks, one at 7.7.
It ripped through the Middle East, waking people in Beirut, Cairo and Damascus. It was felt as far away as Greenland.
In Syria, many victims lived in homes and towns already shattered by 11 years of civil war.
Four million people displaced from other parts of the country are in the earthquake zone.
Rescue operations have been hampered in some areas because of the risk of terrorism. At rebel-held Azmarin the bodies of several children were brought to a hospital.
Aleppo’s Syrian American Medical Society site manager Dr Osama Sallom said of the quake: “I thought I was going to die.
“The most difficult thing is remembering what has happened over the last 11 years, some colleagues lost relatives before and now they are suffering from losing their families again.”
Jasmine Khaled Kanjo, 35 – a teacher in Aleppo – said: “At dawn, the ground was shaking powerfully. It’s still raining now and very cold.”
