March 8 (Bloomberg) -- At least 57 people died and more than 50 were injured when a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, state news agency Anatolia reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek.

The quake struck at 4:32 a.m. today, severely damaging at least five villages in the province of Elazig, according to information on the regional governor’s Web site. More than 50 aftershocks have since rocked the region and people should stay out of damaged buildings, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara.

The tremor destroyed several buildings in the village of Okcular, Anatolia reported. People were also killed in the villages of Yukari Kanatli and Kayali, it said. The Turkish Red Crescent is sending tents and food to the area, it said.

Many people have been killed during earthquakes in Turkey because constructors don’t obey the building standards set by the state. About 20,000 people died during two earthquakes in the west of the country in 1999, rocking the nation’s financial markets. A quake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit the eastern region of Bingol in May 2003, killing 176, including 84 schoolchildren.

The lira strengthened 0.5 percent to 1.5326 per dollar at 12:10 p.m. in Istanbul.

The province of Elazig is near a network of dams, hydroelectric power stations and irrigation channels covering more than 273,000 hectares. The project is known as the Southeastern Anatolia Project, or GAP.

More than 200 rescue workers and medical personnel are at the scene of the quake and 230 tents have been distributed to homeless villagers, Erdogan’s office said in a statement on its Web site.

About 547,000 people live in Elazig, including 37,965 people in Kovancilar, the area where the earthquake struck, according to the Web site of the province.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ali Berat Meric in Ankara at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

(Source www.bloomberg.com)