A Croatian team of 40 rescuers will fly to Turkey to join others who are searching for victims of two powerful earthquakes which hit Turkey and Syria on Monday morning, and which have claimed over 1,200 lives so far.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic tweeted that he had met with Foreign and Interior Ministers Gordan Grlic- Radman and Davor Bozinovic to discuss sending help the areas destroyed by the quakes.

Croatia will send a 40-memeber rescue team as a sign of solidarity, the Plenkovic tweeted.

A rescue operation is under way across much of southern Turkey and northern Syria following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 1,200 people. The first tremor struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep. A new 7.5-magnitude quake hit at around 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT).

Over a dozen EU countries have offered search and rescue teams to Turkey following the deadly earthquakes.

PM Plenkovic has already extended his condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the families of the people killed in the disaster on Monday morning.

“Deeply saddened by loss of many lives in the devastating earthquake in Türkiye this morning,” Plenkovic wrote on Twitter.

“We stand in solidarity with Türkiye,” he added, wishing a speedy recovery to those injured.

According to updated information from the Croatian foreign ministry, there is one Croatian woman among the injured victims. She is not in a life-threatening condition and is currently at hospital in the southeastern city of Adiyaman.