Eastern Turkey hit by 7.2 magnitude quake

The province of Van, on the border with Iran, appeared to be particularly badly hit with officials warning of damage to buildings and infrastructure.

The quake struck at 13:41 (10:41 GMT), some 17 km (10 miles) north-east Van city, the US Geological Survey said.

Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines.

Two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost 20,000 people in densely populated parts of the north-west of the country.