More than 200 people were killed in the 7.2 magnitude quake that devastated parts of eastern Turkey, Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told reporters early Monday.

Overseeing emergency operations in Ercis, one of the worst hit towns, Sahin said 117 people were confirmed dead in Ercis and 100 in Van city, the provincial capital. A total of 1,090 people were known to have been injured by the quake Sunday afternoon, he said. Officials say hundreds of people remained unaccounted for and rescue teams were working through the night looking for survivors beneath the rubble.

As a cold night fell, survivors and emergency workers battled to pull hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in Van and Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

Residents in Van joined in a frantic search, using hands and shovels and working under floodlights and flashlights, hearing voices of people buried alive calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and freezing temperatures.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan traveled by helicopter to the area to see firsthand the scale of Turkey's worst earthquake in a decade.

Tens of thousands fled into the streets running, screaming or trying to reach relatives on cell phones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed. As the full extent of the damage became clear, survivors dug in with shovels or even their bare hands, desperately trying to rescue the trapped and the injured.

"My wife and child are inside! My 4-month-old baby is inside!" CNN-Turk television showed one young man sobbing outside a collapsed building in Van, the provincial capital.

Highways in the area caved in and Van's airport was damaged, forcing flights to be diverted.

TRT television reported that 60 people were killed and 150 injured in Ercis, 25 others died in Van and four people, including a child, died in the nearby province of Bitlis. It said at least nine people were pulled out of debris alive.