Rescue workers were still tearing at the rubble early today, some with their hands, in a desperate effort to save thousands of people believed to be trapped in collapsed buildings across western Turkey, after one of the most devastating earthquakes to strike the region in 20 years.
The death toll late last night stood at 2,033, but was rising steadily as aid workers in some of Turkey's most populated and industrialised districts continued to pull bodies from wrecked buildings. Many people were crushed while asleep. Some of the bodies were shrouded in blankets and sheets from their own beds.
The earthquake lasted just 45 seconds. It happened at 3.02 a.m., as if timed to strike its victims - many of whom lived in poor districts where building regulations are often ignored - when they were at their most vulnerable. The epicentre was near the industrial city of Izmit, about 90 km east of Istanbul.
Turkish authorities placed the quake at 6.7 on the Richter scale, but American geologists based in Colorado recorded a magnitude of 7.8 - making it the strongest since the 1985 Mexico earthquake disaster that killed 9,500 people. Buildings shook up to 360 km away from the epicentre.
A massive rescue effort, led by Turkey's large conscript army, was in full swing throughout the night. Recovery teams often appeared overwhelmed by the enormous scale of their task.
Multi-storey apartment blocks were reduced to piles of rubble and twisted masonry in a matter of seconds. Minarets fallen from the roofs of mosques lay shattered on the ground.
A fire was still raging at an oil refinery near Izmit last night, while roads and bridges were destroyed and power lines and communication links were cut across wide areas of the country for much of the day.
At Golcuk on the Sea of Marmara the local mayor said he feared 10,000 people were still trapped. They included more than 200 naval personnel trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed barrack buildings. Officials believe there is little chance of finding many of them alive.
An exhausted naval guard, his light brown uniform covered with dust, said: "We heard a great noise and ran towards the building where our friends were. It was completely destroyed. We struggled to dig them out with our bare hands."
Among the debris of an apartment block in the town, Gulser Onat screamed: "My loves, my children are there, my 15-year-old son and my daughter. But no one is fighting to save them."
Mahir Eryilmaz dug for 12 hours, trying to free his nephew. When a crane finally arrived, it was too short.
"The crane couldn't do anything. Nobody is helping us. Neither the city nor the military," he said as he continued bashing desperately at the concrete that pinned his 21-year-old nephew's feet.
No one really knows how many bodies still lie under the rubble - nor how many people may still be alive, injured and running out of air. Rescue co-ordinators have by no means given up hope of finding people alive, but it is a race against time.
Specialist teams moved into the worst affected areas with sophisticated listening equipment and highly-trained sniffer dogs. They are able to locate the smallest signs of life from deep beneath the rubble.
Medical services in the region have been stretched to the limit. Makeshift hospitals were set up among the ruins to care for thousands of injured people, after regular hospitals were forced to begin turning away all but the most seriously wounded. In Izmit patients were treated in the street.
As the Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, predicted that the loss of life would be huge, neighbouring countries, including Turkey's historic enemy, Greece, offered immediate disaster assistance.
"We can only imagine how difficult this is for them and we will do what we can to help," said President Clinton, in Washington. The US offer of military help and a search-and-rescue team was matched by Britain, which prepared to send 39 disaster specialists. The British Consulate in Istanbul, where around 1,600 Britons are usually living or visiting, reported no British casualties.
Survivors of the earthquake say they were thrown from their beds by the initial tremor, and hundreds of thousands of people spilled out onto the streets in panic. The general confusion amid the darkness led to initial chaos, until the Turkish army mobilised to begin helping civilian services co-ordinate recovery efforts.
Turkey sits on an active geological fault line, but there was no obvious warning of impending disaster. Last year a slightly less powerful tremor killed more than 140 people near the southern city of Adana. Hundreds of after shocks yesterday provoked widespread unease and occasional panic.
Most people detected the hand of greedy building contractors in the tragedy. They have used widespread corruption to ignore what should be tough regulations to make sure buildings meet safety standards.
The Izmit region has experienced a building boom in recent years as migrants have flooded into the area from the east of the country in search of work.
Many of the family of Mr Yusef Acil live near Izmet, which bore the brunt of the earthquake. He thinks it is foolish to believe they have all escaped unharmed. Along with many of the 200,000-strong Turkish community in Britain, Mr Acil spent most of yesterday trying to contact loved ones. Like most of them, he failed.
Thousands of Britons with relatives in Turkey jammed the switchboard at the Turkish embassy in London, and at Turkish Radio UK. Others unable to understand news reports in English flocked to Turkish community centres to watch news of the disaster on Turkish satellite TV.