Quakes shake southwestern Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- A string of earthquakes shook southwestern Turkey on Saturday, collapsing a mud-brick house and damaging dozens of other homes, officials said.

Several people suffered minor injuries in their panicked rush toward safety.

The Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said the strongest quake struck southwestern Denizli province at 11:36 a.m. and had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6.

Recep Yazicioglu, the local governor, told the CNN-Turk news channel that some buildings had cracks and that a mud-brick house in a village had collapsed.

Earlier, he told the Anatolia news agency that 48 homes were damaged. Several people had suffered minor injuries as they left their homes in panic, he added.

Denizli is about 280 miles southwest of Ankara, the capital.

NTV said that quake could be felt as far away as the Aegean port city of Izmir, 140 miles to the northwest.

There were more than 20 aftershocks, including one with a preliminary magnitude of 4.9 late in the afternoon.

"We're recommending that residents not go back into their homes until the morning," Yazicioglu said, adding that tents would be distributed.

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which lies atop active fault lines. Two massive quakes killed some 18,000 people in 1999. On Wednesday, a magnitude 5.2 quake shook Denizli and caused no injuries or damage.