More than 200 dead, hundreds missing after Turkey earthquake

More than 200 people were killed in the 7.2 magnitude quake that devastated parts of eastern Turkey, Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told reporters early on Monday.

Overseeing emergency operations in Ercis, one the worst hit towns, Sahin said 117 people were confirmed dead in Ercis and 100 in Van city, the provincial capital. A total of 1,090 people were known to have been injured by the quake on Sunday afternoon, he said. Officials say hundreds of people remained unaccounted for and rescue teams were working through the night looking for survivors beneath the rubble.

As a cold night fell, survivors and emergency workers battled to pull hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the city of Van and town of Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

Residents in Van joined in a frantic search, using hands and shovels and working under floodlights and flashlights, hearing voices of people buried alive calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and freezing temperatures.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who travelled by helicopter to the area to see firsthand the scale of Turkey's worst earthquake in a decade, told a nationally televised news conference at least 138 people had been killed -- 93 in Van city centre and 45 in Ercis. The toll was expected to rise.

"The most important problem now is in the villages close to Van city centre because the buildings are made of adobe. They are more vulnerable to quakes. I must say that almost all buildings in such villages are destroyed."

He said people were still trapped under rubble but gave no figure. An official at the Van provincial crisis centre told Reuters up to 600 people had been injured and 300-400 were missing, feared buried beneath rubble of collapsed buildings.

The quake struck at 1041 GMT.

More accounts of dead bodies and destruction emerged from smaller settlements across the remote area near the Iranian border, most of them left without electricity or phone access.