Turkey, March 08: A Strong earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck eastern Turkey early today (GMT), killing up to 38 people.
The quake struck at 04:32 a.m. (02:32 GMT) with its epicenter near the Karakocan town in Elazig province, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said on its website.
The Disaster and Emergency Administration said the official toll stood at 20, with 60 people injured, AFP reported.
However, the Reuters news agency said Kovancilar Mayor Bekir Yanilmaz was quoted by television channels as saying 38 people had been killed.
At least eight of the dead came from Okcular, one of the largest villages in the region with a population of about 800 living mainly in mud-brick houses built on hillsides.
“Villages consisting mainly of mud-brick houses have been damaged, but we have minimal damage such as cracks in buildings made of cement or stone,” Elazig governor Muammer Erol said.
At least four of the victims were children.
Rescuers were striving to save three people trapped under two of the houses razed to the ground in Okcular, the CNN Turk news channel said.
Some 25 to 30 houses were demolished by the tremor in Okcular, Yasar Cagribay, the head of the rescue team, said.
The local hospital was inundated with the injured, CNN-Turk said, adding that doctor reinforcements and medical aid were on their way.
The disaster management center announced that it had sent rescuers, blankets and tents to the quake region.
Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek had left Ankara for the disaster zone along with Health Minister Recep Akdag, Housing Minister Mustafa Demir and State Minister Cevdet Yilmaz, Anatolia said.
The tremor was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir, sending residents rushing out on to the streets in panic where they spent the rest of the night in fear, CNN-Turk said.
Several aftershocks were felt in the region.
Deadly earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several active fault-lines.
Two powerful tremors in the heavily populated and industrialized northwest claimed about 20,000 lives in August and November 1999.
—Agencies