Rescue efforts stall as death toll from Turkey earthquake hits 36

Rescue efforts are stalling in Turkey after an earthquake killed at least 36 people.

The death toll rose again this afternoon after the 6.8 magnitude quake struck Elazig province in the east of the country late on Friday.

Crews have retrieved some 45 survivors from the rubble so far, after buildings collapsed.

But officials said emergency operation is now nearing its end, with six people left trapped under wreckage.

"It has been around 36 hours [since the quake], but we are still in the hours where we can hope," Suleyman Soyu, the interior minister, said on Sunday.

The quake, which hit at 8.55pm local time on Friday, injured 1,556 people, crumbling at least five buildings in Sivrice and 25 in Malatya province, and rendering hundreds of other structures made unsafe.

Nearly 600 aftershocks rocked the region as rescue teams worked and a magnitude 4.3 quake hit Puturge district in the neighbouring Malatya province on Sunday morning.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised steel-framed houses for those whose homes have been destroyed.

"Turkey has begun to heal the wounds of this great disaster in unity, togetherness and coming together," he said.

Turkish health minister Fahrettin Koca warned yesterday that the death toll could rise further.

Emergency workers and security forces distributed tents, beds and blankets as overnight temperatures dropped below freezing in the affected areas.

Mosques, schools, sports halls and student dormitories were opened for hundreds who left their homes after the disaster.

The country sits on two active fault lines, with one quake in 1999 killing 17,000 people in the western city of Izmit.