Ghanaian midfielder Priscilla Okyere said she is terrified of going to sleep, as she fears another earthquake may hit Turkey.

The 27-year-old, who plied her trade for Hatayspor's female side, survived the devastating tragedy on Monday.

"I have not been sleeping for four days - I'm so scared to go to sleep," Okyere told BBC Sport Africa.

"Even today, [though] we had a safe place to sleep. I haven't closed my eyes from 5am till now.

"When someone bangs on the door, I wake up because I'm scared. I don't want to close my eyes and realise this thing is happening again."

The earthquake has claimed the lives of thousands of people; the death toll is reported to be over 22,000 and expected to increase in the coming days.

Okyere shared her relief at surviving the earthquake.

"I was terrified. I cried for days. I can't imagine how lucky we were to get out of that situation, because most people couldn't get out."

Okyere said that in the days before the earthquake the entire team had felt several tremors.

On the night the earthquake struck, "We were coming from a game in Istanbul and we weren't home until around 2am," she said.

"We had to shower and then get some sleep. At first I thought I was dreaming, because since we had come to Hatay, I had experienced tremors twice. Sometimes the building would just shake [for] 30 seconds and then stop."

But that night's tremor was unlike the others, raising concerns that it could be an earthquake.

"When it happened, I thought it was a normal thing at first, but I realised this was much more intense than the previous ones," Okyere said.

The entire Turkish football fraternity have halted proceedings to recover from the tragedy.

Also from Ghana, Hatayspor winger Christian Atsu was initially reported to have been trapped under rubble before being rescued.

However, recent reports indicated that Atsu still needs to be found.

Compiled by Dylan Bettencourt