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Two ethnic Armenians have been confirmed among the victims of a powerful overnight earthquake in Syria’s Aleppo, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vahan Hunanyan said on Monday.

One of the victims holds dual Syrian and Armenian citizenship, he said.

“Efforts are also being made to clarify whether there are Armenian citizens among the casualties in Turkey,” the spokesman wrote on Facebook.

A major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck central Turkey and north-west Syria early on Monday morning, killing more than 500 people and injuring hundreds as buildings collapsed across the region, triggering searches for survivors in the rubble, the Guardian reported.

In Syria, already devastated by more than 11 years of civil war, a government health official said more than 237 people had been killed and about 600 injured, most in the provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia, where numerous buildings tumbled down.