Residents in the Turkish province of Van and as far as the Iranian city of Khoy were woken by a powerful earthquake on Sunday morning, with the tremor causing around 1066 buildings to collapse.
At least nine people were killed and around 50 people were injured by the earthquake in Turkey, with three people being taken to hospital in critical condition, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 0553 GMT, was near the Iranian village of Habash-e Olya, less than 10 kilometres from the border, according to the US Geological Survey.
1,066 building collapse in east Turkey earthquake Source: AP
The earthquake had a depth of six kilometres, Tehran University's Seismological Centre said.
A total of 24 aftershocks hit the region Sunday, two of them over 4.0 magnitude, Turkey's disaster management agency said.
Dozens injured in Iran
Sunday's earthquake injured around 75 people in Iran, and affected 43 villages in Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, but no fatalities were recorded.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said the quake which struck at 09:23 local time had a diameter of five kilometres, with several smaller tremors also recorded.
Footage from Turkish media showed villagers digging through the rubble to try and free dozens of people trapped under collapsed buildings in Baskale, Van, many of which one villager said were children.
“There were children under the debris. We thought we heard their voices,” he said.
"Then something happened. We didn't understand what happened exactly and we pulled out three bodies.
Governor of Van, Mehmet Emin Blimez, has since reported rescue teams sent to the remote mountainous region have finished extracting people from the wreckage.
Children injured in earthquake in Turkey's eastern province of Van. Source: AP
"We have right now no citizens trapped under the rubble," Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
Frequent seismic activity
Both Iran and Turkey sit on top of major tectonic plates and see frequent seismic activity.
In November 2017, a 7.3-magnitude quake in Iran's western province of Kermanshah killed 620 people.
In 2003, a 6.6-magnitude quake in southeastern Iran decimated the ancient mud-brick city of Bam and killed at least 31,000 people.
Iran's deadliest quake was a 7.4-magnitude tremor in 1990 that killed 40,000 people in northern Iran, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless.
In December and January, two earthquakes struck near Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Iran's Gulf Arab neighbours have raised concerns about the reliability of the country's sole nuclear power facility, which produces 1,000 megawatts of power, and the risk of radioactive leaks in case of a major earthquake.
A general view of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, southern Iran, 20 August 2010. Source: AAP
Turkey is also prone to earthquakes and over 40 people died in January after a 6.8-magnitude quake struck Elazig in eastern Turkey.
In 1999, a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Izmit in western Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people including about 1,000 in the country's most populous city, Istanbul.
Van, which was hit by a 7.1 magnitude quake in 2011 killing more than 500 people, was struck by tragedy again this month when two avalanches left 41 people dead.
With AFP.
