The quake, which registered 5.1 on the Richter scale according to the French Earth Science observatory in Strasbourg, hit at 1:30 am (2230 GMT) near the town of Dogubeyazit.

The small village of Yigincali was the worst hit with 18 killed there, provincial governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir told the NTV television channel.

Rescue work in the houses -- which were all made of mud -- has been completed and the toll should not climb any higher, he added.

"These houses cannot withstand an earthquake," Yavuzdemir said.

According to the Anatolia news agency all 67 houses in the village, located some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Iranian border, were damaged by the quake.

The majority of the some 700 inhabitants had left the village to take their animals to summer pastures, the governor said. Otherwise the toll would have been much higher, he added.

Two other villages suffered minor damage, Anatolia news agency reported.

Five aftershocks were felt after the initial quake, the agency added.

The army sent rescue teams to the region, and Red Crescent workers were also dispatched. Some 40 tents have been set up to accomodate survivors.

Turkey is crossed by several major fault lines, and earthquakes are a frequent occurrence.

The worst in recent years was in August and September 1999, when two quakes, one measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale struck northwestern Turkey and southeastern Greece, killing more than 20,000 people.

The worst tremor in modern times was in December 1939, when a 7.9 quake struck eastern Turkey, leaving some 45,000 people dead.

An earthquake is a sudden release of energy in the earth's crust, caused by movements deep beneath the surface.

The Anatolian fault that lies between the two plates runs east-west across Turkey, with the Eurasian land mass inching eastwards. The fault is under additional pressure from the Arabian plate to the south, which is shifting northwards at a rate of inches per year.

TERRA.WIRE