A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 shook southeastern Turkey on Sunday, Turkey's Kandilli Observatory said, triggering the collapse of buildings and killing scores of people.

Turkey's main seismography center says the quake could have killed up to 1,000 people.

The Kandilli observatory's estimate is based on the strength of the quake and the structure of the housing in the area.

"We are estimating a death toll between 500 and 1,000," Mustafa Erdik, head of the Kandilli observatory, told a televised news conference Sunday.

Turkey's deputy prime minister said around 45 buildings have collapsed in the town of Ercis and the city of Van. Ercis sits on a geological fault line.

"A lot of buildings collapsed, many people killed, but we don't know the number. We are waiting for emergency help, its very urgent," Zulfukar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis district, which was hit badly, told the news broadcaster NTV.