OKCULAR, Turkey (AFP) - – A powerful earthquake in eastern Turkey on Monday buried people as they slept in remote villages, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens, officials said.

Rescuers struggled to dig survivors from the rubble after the tremor, which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale, tore down mud-brick houses in villages around the town of Karakocan in Elazig province.

The power was even more devastating as the epicentre of the quake, which struck at 4:32am (0232 GMT), was only five kilometres (three miles) beneath the Earth's surface, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said on its web site.

An official at the governor's office in Elazig city said that at least four of the 41 dead found so far are children. About 100 people were injured and nine were in critical condition.

Rescuers were trying to save at least four people trapped under debris, Elazig governor Muammer Erol told CNN Turk television.

In the worst-hit village of Okcular, a mountain settlement of some 900 people, military and civil defence teams scoured the debris for survivors as after-shocks jolted the area, an AFP correspondent said.

Villagers wailed at the flattened homes of 17 people killed by the tremor. Seeking to recover any valuables they could from their homes, many villagers left for other towns to take shelter with relatives.

About 30 houses were demolished in Okcular, Yasar Cagribay, head of a rescue team, told CNN Turk.

The quake killed many livestock, the main livelihood for the village, nestled in hills at a height of about 1,800 metres (5,900 feet).

The Turkish Red Crescent rushed tents, blankets, food and other humanitarian supplies to the area.

The nearby villages of Yukari Kanatli, Kayalik, Gocmezler and Yukari Demirci were also seriously hit.

"Villages consisting mainly of mud-brick houses have been damaged, but we have minimal damage such as cracks in buildings made of cement or stone," the provincial governor said.

The local hospital was inundated with the injured, CNN Turk said, adding that medican reinforcements and aid had been sent.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek went to the disaster zone with Health Minister Recep Akdag, Housing Minister Mustafa Demir and State Minister Cevdet Yilmaz, Anatolia news agency reported.

The tremor was felt in the neighbouring provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir. Residents rushed out onto the streets in panic and spent the night outside fearing new shocks, CNN-Turk said.

Major earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several active fault-lines.

Two powerful tremors in the heavily populated and industrialized northwest claimed about 20,000 lives in August and November 1999.