On Monday, a giant 7.8-magnitude earthquake and an aftershock almost as big shook the earth in southern Turkey. The quakes sent ripples through neighboring countries, but the area along the Syrian-Turkish border was hit particularly hard.

Thousands of people have been killed, and dozens of cities have been gutted.

We hear from witnesses on the ground about what happened when the devastating tremors hit.

Guest: Ben Hubbard, the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The initial earthquake struck before dawn, shattering lives in a region already rocked by war, a refugee crisis and economic distress.
• In northwestern Syria, nearly three million people displaced by the country’s civil war were already living in precarious conditions.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.