7.2 Magnitude earthquake in Turkey

As many as 1,000 people are feared dead after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit south-eastern Turkey, destroying dozens of buildings and trapping some victims alive under the rubble

Rescue teams in eastern Turkey are working frantically to pull more survivors from the wreckage of dozens of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in which at least 279 people were killed and hundreds of others injured or trapped.

There was increasing concern for tens of thousands of people forced to spend the night outdoors in near-freezing temperatures in the mountainous Van region, as their damaged homes were shaken by a succession of aftershocks.

"It is a very urgent situation," Hakki Erskoy,, a disaster manager for the Turkish Red Crescent, said, adding that his organisation was dealing with 40,000 homeless people, adding. "Right now, we are facing a race against time to provide shelter for people."

Sunday's 7.2-magnitude quake had the most severe effect in Ercis, a town of around 75,000 people, where an estimated 80 buildings collapsed.

The provincial capital, Van, about 60 miles to the south, experienced substantial damage as well, and the situation was bad in many surrounding villages. According to the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who toured the region by helicopter, virtually all mud-brick homes had collapsed.

www.guardian.co.uk