Quake in Turkey kills three, topples buildings

Rescuers take part in an operation after an earthquake in Van, Turkey, in October 2011.

More people are believed to have been trapped under the rubble, it said, adding that rescue teams were trying to find possible survivors.

Twenty-one buildings including two hotels were collapsed in the quake, sowing fresh panic among residents, said TRT.

Sixteen people have been thus far recovered alive from the two hotels, it added, citing information from the crisis desk immediately set up in the region as its source.

The quake occurred at 1923 GMT, with the epicentre in the Edremit district, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the Van province, according to the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory.

One of the collapsed buildings is a six-storey hotel in the Van city centre, private NTV television said. The hotel was mostly occupied by journalists and teams from the Turkish Red Crescent.

Rescue operations were continuing at the two hotel sites, television footage showed.

Nine planes carrying almost 300 rescuers were dispatched to the quake region, said media reports.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who was already in the region, rushed to Van and was being briefed at the crisis desk, they added.

The region bore the brunt of the deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake on October 23, which killed more than 600 people.

Experts, speaking to television stations, said a moderate quake of 5.7 magnitude would not cause any human or material loss under normal circumstances, adding the extent of the current quake could grow because of the fact that the buildings which were damaged in the previous quake were not entirely emptied.

Local media, citing data from the Kandilli Observatory, measured the quake as 5.6 but it was of 5.7 magnitude according to the US Geological Survey.

"It would be premature to say if it is an aftershock or an earthquake," Kandilli Observatory Director Professor Mustafa Erdik told NTV.

Turkey is earthquake-prone due to being crossed by several fault lines.

In 1999, two strong quakes in the heavily-populated and industrialised regions of northwest Turkey left some 20,000 dead.