As the effects and aftershocks of Sunday morning's 7.2 magnitude earthquake ravages the provinces of Ercis and Van in eastern Turkey, many local residents are calling on the Turkish government for aid. Many of the residents are nearing panic as collapsed buildings, continuous aftershocks and felled power lines combine with a feared death toll approaching one thousand, with approximately one hundred deaths confirmed thus far in the natural disaster.

The earthquake's epicenter was in Tabali, a village near the Iranian border in the eastern Van province, according to The International News Network. Reports vary on the magnitude of the earthquake, but most reports, including that of Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, give it a 7.2 magnitude, while others give it up to a 7.6 magnitude.
Regardless of the exact magnitude of the earthquake, its force has toppled many of the buildings near the Turkey-Iran border, causing horrific casualties. "Five hundred to 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the quake," Mustafa Erdik, director of the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute in Istanbul, told reporters.