A powerful 7.2-magnitudeearthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, collapsing apartment buildings and cutting communications and power in the city of Van and its surroundings.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited the area late Sunday, said the earthquake had killed at least 138 people in the area, and an unknown number of people were trapped as night fell and the temperature dropped.

Mr. Edogan said 93 people died in Van and 45 more in the nearby town of Ercis. Around 350 people had been injured, he said. In Ercis, 'the number of people under rubble is unclear,' he said, adding that 55 buildings had collapsed in that town.

An eyewitness said a number of buildings in central Van collapsed, leaving people panicked in the streets, while as many as 1,000 people were thronging outside the local hospital.

After the quake, more than a dozen aftershocks were felt, according to Turkish television. The strongest one, at magnitude 5.7, shook Van just before midnight local time, when Mr. Erdogan was still visiting the region.