The Death toll in the strong earthquake that rocked the town of Duzce in north-western Turkey yesterday stood at at least 100 last night, a government minister told Anatolia news agency.
The Kandilli seismic institute in Istanbul said that the quake, measuring 7.2 on the open-ended Richter scale, struck in the evening with an epicentre at the province's Duzce town.
The head of the institute, Mr Ahmet Mete Isikara, said yesterday's tremor was a fresh one and not an aftershock of the August 17th quake.
The August earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.4, had struck the city of Izmit - some 100 km west of Duzce - killing nearly 20,000 people in Turkey's highly industrialised north-west.
"We are facing a big disaster," President Suleyman Demirel told reporters in Ankara.
"It is a destructive earthquake. I hope it does not lead to great losses."
"Many buildings have collapsed and several people are reported to be trapped under rubble," Mr Bulent Ecevit, the Prime Minister, said. "Unfortunately, the situation in Duzce is dire."
Fire engines, doctors, ambulances, search-and-rescue teams and army troops were on their way to the quake zone from Ankara and other provinces, Mr Ecevit said.
The NTV television channel reported from the area that doctors were breaking into chemist shops to get medical equipment as more and more people were being rushed into hospitals.
Some of the injured were transferred to a hospital in Ankara, which was evacuated to make room for the quake survivors, the Anatolia news agency said.
Troops from a commando brigade based near Kaynasli were carefully sifting through the wreckage of a restaurant where witnesses said some 50 people were eating when the earthquake struck.
Residents were also lending a helping hand to rescue efforts carried out in pitch darkness, but with obvious fear in their eyes of more aftershocks.
Dozens of aftershocks, the smallest of which measured 4.5 on the Richter scale, have jolted the region since the earthquake struck, the Kandilli seismological institute said.
Scores of people were camping out in front of the few undamaged buildings, gathering around little bonfires as cold weather settled over the town with nightfall.
Several ambulances and construction machines poured into Kaynasli along a heavily damaged road, which was closed by security forces to traffic other than aid-carrying vehicles.
In the nearby provinces of Kocaeli and Sakarya, which were ravaged in the August earthquake, three people were killed and more than 150 people were injured as they jumped off balconies and windows in panic.
Anatolia quoted an employee of the town's hospital as saying that a nurse was killed when an old building on the hospital complex collapsed in the tremor.
Footage from Bolu province broadcast by NTV showed widespread devastation, recalling the massive previous earthquake.
A young man in tears was shown walking around his collapsed home, shouting for his sister trapped in the rubble to talk to him, while a woman was shown desperately pouring water on flames around the rubble of her home.
The pictures showed shocked residents, wrapped in blankets, huddling together on the streets. Fires broke out in buildings in Bolu province while electricity was cut off and telephone lines were jammed following the tremor, making communication difficulty with the quake zone, Anatolia said.
The government crisis centre immediately dispatched aid to the region amid reports of badly-damaged roads which were being kept open to only aid-carrying vehicles.
The earthquake came less than a week ahead of the summit of the Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe on November 18th to 19th in Istanbul, located less than 300 km west of Duzce.
But President Demirel said he did not think the summit, which will involve 54 countries, would be postponed.