"It was extremely horrific and terrifying," said Alaa Nafi, a resident of Idlib city in Syria, while describing the earthquake as "extremely horrific and terrifying".

He said he woke up in the middle of the night and found the entire building shaking. "It the worst feeling ever and made it very hard to escape," he told Al Jazeera.

The earthquake felt like ages, he added.

Nafi said he saw people with children out on the streets crying in cold weather. "It was heartbreaking… but we all gathered in one area away from all the buildings."

"No one should go through what we had to face today," he added.