OKCULAR, March 8 (AFP) - A strong quake killed at least 41 people and injured dozens in remote villages in eastern Turkey early Monday, with survivors trapped under the rubble of mud-brick buildings, officials said.

The quake, which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale, struck at 04:32 am (0232 GMT) at a depth of five kilometres, with an epicentre near the Karakocan town in Elazig province, the Istanbul-based Kandilli observatory said on its web site.

The 41 victims perished in several villages near the epicentre, crushed under mud-brick houses that easily succumbed to the tremor, an official from a crisis desk at the governor's office in Elazig city told AFP.

At least four of the dead were children.

About 100 people were injured, among them nine in critical condition in hospital.

Rescuers were trying to save at least four people trapped under the debris, Elazig Governor Muammer Erol told CNN Turk television.

In the worst-hit village of Okcular, a mountainous settlement of some 900 people, military and civil defence teams looked for survivors in the debris as after-shocks continued to jolt the area, an AFP correspondent said.

At least 17 people died in Okcular, where villagers wailed at the rubble of flattened homes and sought to rescue what they could, some leaving for nearby towns to take shelter with relatives.

About 30 houses were demolished by the tremor in Okcular, Yasar Cagribay, the head of a rescue team, told CNN Turk.

The quake also killed many livestock, the main source of income in the village, nestled in the hills at an altitude of about 1,800 metres (5,900 feet).

The Turkish Red Crescent rushed tents, blankets, food and other humanitarian supplies to the area.

The villages of Yukari Kanatli, Kayalik, Gocmezler and Yukari Demirci were also seriously affected.

"Villages consisting mainly of mud-brick houses have been damaged, but we have minimal damage such as cracks in buildings made of cement or stone," Governor Erol said.

The local hospital was inundated with the injured, CNN Turk said, adding that doctor reinforcements and medical aid were on their way.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek left Ankara for the disaster zone, Anatolia news agency reported.

The tremor was also felt in the neighbouring provinces of Bitlis and Diyarbakir, sending residents rushing out on to the streets in panic where they spent the rest of the night in fear, CNN-Turk said.

Deadly earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, which is crossed by several active fault-lines.

Two powerful tremors in the heavily populated and industrialized northwest claimed about 20,000 lives in August and November 1999. (By Mahmut Bozarslan/ AFP)