TURKEY - 7.2

A powerful earthquake struck eastern Turkey last night, killing "many people", injuring dozens and collapsing buildings in the city of Van.

The mayor of the town of Ercis, Zulfikar Arapoglu, said many people had been killed when the magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck the area near the Iranian border at 1.41pm (9.41pm AEDT).

"There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed, there is too much destruction," Mr Arapoglu told NTV television.


"We need urgent aid, we need medics."

The Prime Minister's office reported loss of life in Van, near the epicentre of the quake. At least 50 people had been injured and were taken to hospital in Van.

Power and telephone lines had been cut, hampering the rescue effort.

The mayor of Van, Bekir Kaya, said people were trapped under two collapsed buildings, one of which was seven storeys.

"Two buildings collapsed in Van, but the telephone system is jammed due to panic and we can't assess the entire damage immediately," Mr Kaya told NTV.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said rescue workers were trying to reach people believed to be trapped under the wreckage of the seven-storey building on Kazim Karabekir Street in Van.

Video from CNN Turkey showed the inside of shaking buildings, and people gathering outside on the streets.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3.

It said the quake had a depth of 7.2km, which is shallow and could potentially cause more damage.

Turkey's Kandilli observatory gave it a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 but put its depth at 5km.

Several aftershocks as strong as magnitude 5.5 followed.

The quake's epicentre was in the village of Tabanli, 19km north-east of Van.

A Reuters news agency reporter in the town of Hakkari, about 100km south of Van, said he felt his building sway for around 10 seconds, but there was no immediate sign of casualties or damage in Hakkari.

The quake was strongly felt in neighbouring provinces, NTV said.

The quake also was felt in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, where worried residents left their homes, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

The area is "no stranger to having these seismic events," but last night's quake is considered major, CNN Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf reported.

One concern is displacement of water along Lake Van, which could send water gushing into nearby areas, particularly along the west side, Wolf reported.

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by faultlines. In 1999, about 18,000 people were killed by two powerful earthquakes that struck northwestern Turkey. In 1976 an earthquake near Van killed over 5000 people.