Rescue workers have clawed through rubble to try to find survivors from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the eastern Turkish city of Van and the town of Ercis on Sunday, killing nearly 300 people.

More than 1,000 people have been found injured but there are fears the number of dead could rise to a thousand as well.

Earthmoving machines and soldiers have been deployed in a frantic search through destroyed concrete and other debris. The Turkish government says relief teams have reached all affected areas.

The epicenter of the quake was the town of Tabanli in Van, near the border with Iran.

"In Van, an ancient city of one million, cranes shifted rubble from a six-storey building that had collapsed and in which 70 people were thought to be trapped.

About 55 buildings including a student dormitory were flattened in Ercis, where fire fighters also attempted to rescue four missing children from a multi-storey block.

Soon after the quake had struck, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew to Van and then on to the smaller but harder-hit Ercis, in Turkey’s Kurdish heartland.

"We don’t know how many people are in the ruins of collapsed buildings," Erdogan said.

International offers

After visiting the disaster zone, Erdogan flew to the capital Ankara for a cabinet meeting to discuss response to the quake.

Erdogan thanked other countries for their offers of support, including Israel and Armenia, but said Turkey could cope with the crisis on its own.

The Turkish Red Crescent had started distributing tents, blankets and food in the region. And Health Minister Recep Akdag said an air ambulance and several helicopters would also be sent to the area.

Turkey's state-run television TRT said a group of inmates escaped from a prison after the earthquake struck. It gave no other detail and it was not immediately known how many had fled.

Quake-prone

Turkey is criss-crossed by active fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.

In 1999, a 7.6-magnitude quake in the city of Izmit killed an estimated 17,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Two people were killed and 79 injured in May, when an earthquake shook Simav in northwest Turkey.

In recent years, the government has instituted stricter building codes, but poor construction means that earthquakes still cause many deaths.

Author: Zulfikar Abbany (dpa, AP, Reuters)
Editor: Nicole Goebel