Most powerful earthquake on Turkey

Turkey was struck by its most powerful earthquake in at least a decade Sunday, as a major tremor & at least seven aftershocks rattled the poor east of the country.

A seven~story building collapsed on Kazim Karabekir Street in the city of Van, & more buildings were reduced to rubble the village of Tabanli in Van Province, the Anatolian news agency said. It was unknown how many people were trapped.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the quake had a magnitude of 7.3, then revised it down to 7.2.

The last quake of that magnitude in Turkey a 7.2 tremor in Duzce in 1999 killed 894 people, the USGS reported. A 7.6 earthquake in Izmit, Turkey, killed more than 17,000 people the same year, according to the USGS.

Sunday's major quake hit at 1:41 p.m. local time & was followed by at least seven aftershocks, American & Turkish monitoring agencies reported.

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