Up to 1,000 feared dead as quake hits Turkey

AT least 85 people have been killed with hundreds more feared dead after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey.

Tens of thousands of residents fled into the streets, while desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and the injured as the scale of the quake became clear.

Turkey’s state-run television station TRT said a group of inmates escaped from a prison after the earthquake struck. It was not immediately known how many had fled.