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Latrell Mitchell and Jack Wighton's teammate Josh Kerr says the duo are in "a safe place" in Indigenous All Stars camp and any "baggage" from recent events in Australia has been left behind.

The superstar duo were among Indigenous teammates and Maori All Stars players formally welcomed at a marae ceremony in Rotorua, Zealand and put through their paces in training for the first time on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's match.

It came two days after the pair were arrested in the early hours in Canberra after what's been described as a light-hearted wrestle between the close friends, who had been celebrating Wighton's 30th birthday with others.

Mitchell, 25, was charged with resisting a public official, fighting in a public place and failing to comply with an exclusion direction, while Wighton was charged with fighting in a public place and failing to comply with an exclusion direction.

The NRL integrity unit is only expected to hand down sanctions once court proceedings have been finalised, with the pair set to front a magistrate court later this month.

It means they are both free to play against the Maori All Stars on Saturday in Rotorua.

Kerr said the pair deserved to play and could do so with minds uncluttered in a supportive environment.

"As soon as we walk through those doors of the camp all our baggage is gone," Kerr told travelling media in New Zealand.

"As soon as they came into camp they had their heads down. We said, 'This is a safe place for you boys'.

"We have a job to do this week. Whatever's happened... we don't even think about it. We just want them to be as happy and connected to culture as possible while they are in camp."

Kerr said former Indigenous star Timana Tahu spoke "beautifully" to the group about how being in camp was a safe haven where the cares of the world were discarded.

He said Mitchell was in a good frame of mind.

"It is great to see where his head is at in camp. He seems happy," he said.

"You look on TV and he is this big personality but coming into camp he is one of the boys."

Mitchell and Wighton are two of the biggest names in the pre-season All Star match which has lost some gloss with the withdrawals of stars including Joey Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Josh Addo-Carr.

© AAP 2023

A huge earthquake has killed more than 2600 people across a swathe of Turkey and northwest Syria, with freezing winter weather adding to the plight of the many thousands left injured or homeless and hampering efforts to find survivors.

The magnitude 7.8 quake brought down whole apartment blocks in Turkish cities and piled more devastation on millions of Syrians displaced by years of war.

The worst tremor to strike Turkey this century, it came before sunrise in harsh weather and was followed in the early afternoon by another large quake of magnitude 7.7.

"It was like the apocalypse," Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud said in the northern Syrian town of Atareb.

"It's bitterly cold and there's heavy rain, and people need saving."

The second quake was big enough to bring down more buildings and, like the first, was felt across the region, endangering rescuers struggling to pull casualties from the rubble.

In Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey, a woman speaking next to the wreckage of the seven-storey block where she lived said: "We were shaken like a cradle. There were nine of us at home. Two sons of mine are still in the rubble, I'm waiting for them."

She was nursing a broken arm and had injuries to her face.

The earthquake was the biggest quake recorded worldwide by the US Geological survey since a tremor in the remote South Atlantic in August 2021.

In Turkey, the death toll stood at 1651, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, and 11,119 people were recorded as injured.

At least 968 people were killed in Syria, according to figures from the Damascus government and rescue workers in the northwestern region controlled by insurgents.

Poor internet connections and damaged roads between some of the worst-hit cities in Turkey's south, homes to millions of people, hindered efforts to assess and address the impact.

Temperatures in some areas were expected to fall to near freezing overnight, worsening conditions for people trapped under rubble or left homeless.

Rain was falling on Monday after snowstorms swept the country at the weekend.

It is already the highest death toll from an earthquake in Turkey since 1999, when a tremor of similar magnitude devastated the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000.

President Tayyip Erdogan, who is preparing for a tough election in May, called it a historic disaster and the worst earthquake to hit Turkey since 1939 but said authorities were doing all they could.

"Everyone is putting their heart and soul into efforts although the winter season, cold weather and the earthquake happening during the night makes things more difficult," he said.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT showed a building collapse in the southern province of Adana after the second quake.

In Syria, already wrecked by more than 11 years of war, the health ministry said 538 people had been killed and more than 1326 injured.

In the Syrian rebel-held northwest, emergency workers said 390 people had died.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said the earthquake would only add to the suffering of millions of Syrians already enduring a humanitarian crisis due to the conflict.

In the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Reuters journalists saw dozens of rescue workers searching through a mound of debris, all that was left of a big building, and hauling off bits of wreckage as they looked for survivors.

Occasionally they raised their hands and called for quiet, listening for sounds of life.

Men carried a girl wrapped in blankets from a collapsed building in the city.

In Izmir, drone footage showed rescue workers stood atop a hill of rubble where a building once stood, working to lift slabs of masonry.

Footage circulated on Twitter showed two neighbouring buildings collapsing one after the other in Syria's Aleppo, filling the street with billowing dust.

Two residents of the city, which has been heavily damaged in the war, said the buildings had fallen in the hours after the quake, which was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.

Erdogan said 45 countries had offered to help the search and rescue efforts in Turkey.

© RAW 2023

More than 1400 people have been killed and thousands injured when an earthquake struck central Turkey and northwest Syria, collapsing apartment blocks and heaping more destruction on Syrian cities already devastated by years of war.

The magnitude 7.8 quake, which hit early on Monday morning, was the worst to hit Turkey this century. It was also felt in Cyprus and Lebanon.

Rescue workers operating in bitter winter weather pulled casualties from rubble across the region.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said 912 people were killed, 5383 injured, and 2818 buildings had collapsed.

Erdogan said he could not predict how much the death toll would rise as search and rescue efforts continued.

In Syria, already wrecked by more than 11 years of civil war, the health ministry said more than 326 people had been killed and 1042 injured. In the Syrian rebel-held northwest, rescuers said 147 people had died.

In Diyarbakir, Reuters journalists saw dozens of rescue workers searching through a mound of debris, all that was left of a big building, hauling off bits of wreckage as they looked for survivors. Occasionally they raised their hands and called for quiet, listening for sounds of life.

Men carried a girl wrapped in blankets from a collapsed building in the city.

Footage circulated on Twitter showed two neighbouring buildings collapsing one after the other in Syria's Aleppo, filling the street with billowing dust. Two residents of the city, which has been heavily damaged in the war, said the buildings had fallen in the hours after the quake.

Aleppo health director Ziad Hage Taha told Reuters wounded people were "arriving in waves".

Syrian state television showed footage of rescue teams searching for survivors in heavy rain and sleet.

In Afrin, a Syrian opposition-held town, rescue workers from the White Helmets response organisation searched in the pre-dawn darkness for people trapped in a collapsed building. Using only torchlight, they pulled a man in a white vest and dark trousers from the rubble, carrying him away for treatment.

In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad held an emergency cabinet meeting to review the damage and discuss the next steps, his office said.

People in Damascus and in the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli ran into the street and took to their cars to get away from their buildings in fear of collapses, witnesses said.

Footage on broadcaster CNNTurk showed the historic Gaziantep Castle was severely damaged.

Erdogan said 45 countries had offered to help the search and rescue efforts.

The United States was "profoundly concerned" about the quake and was monitoring events closely, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter.

"We stand ready to provide any and all needed assistance," he said.

The US Geological Survey said quake struck at a depth of 17.9 kilometres. It reported a series of earthquakes, one of 6.7 magnitude.

The region straddles seismic fault lines.

"The combination of large magnitude and shallow depth made this earthquake extremely destructive," Mohammad Kashani, Associate Professor of Structural and Earthquake Engineering at the University of Southampton, said.

It was Turkey's most severe quake since 1999, when one of similar magnitude devastated Izmit and the heavily populated eastern Marmara Sea region near Istanbul, killing more than 17,000.

Tremors were felt in the Turkish capital of Ankara, 460km northwest of the epicentre, and in Cyprus, where police reported no damage.

"The earthquake struck in a region that we feared. There is serious widespread damage," Kerem Kinik, the chief of the Turkish Red Crescent relief agency, told Haberturk, issuing an appeal for blood donations.

Turkey is among the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. More than 17,000 people were killed in 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude quake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul. In 2011, a quake in the eastern city of Van killed more than 500.

© RAW 2023