More than 7,800 people have been killed in Turkey and Syria after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday. Turkey's vice president Fuat Oktay called the earthquake the "disaster of the century."

According to officials on Tuesday, there are 7,826 dead with 5,894 fatalities in Turkey and 1,932 fatalities in Syria. More than 20,000 people have been injured.

The World Health Organization has estimated that up to 20,000 may have died.

The number of deaths could be worse than the U.N. estimates, according to earthquake expert Ovgun Ahmet Ercan, who told The Economist that "180,000 people or more may be trapped under the rubble, nearly all of them dead."

Rescue crews have reportedly saved more than 8,000 people in Turkey.

The two countries saw about 6,000 buildings collapse. The region has been hit by over 100 aftershocks. The epicenter was near Gaziantep, a city in Turkey of more than 2 million people located near the Syrian border.

The earthquake, which was among the strongest to hit the area in a century, hit the area amid freezing weather conditions and as 4 million Syrians continue to rely on humanitarian assistance. Syria has dealt with a refugee crisis from a civil war that began in 2011.

President Joe Biden told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he would send search-and-rescue teams to support Turkey's emergency efforts.

Erdogan has declared seven days of national mourning.

Earthquake