Turkey earthquake: 5.7-magnitude tremor strikes near Denizli

Quake strikes 8km underground

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake has struck near the western Turkish town of Denizli.

The Kandilli observatory – which initially said the tremor measured 6.5 magnitude – said it took place 8 kilometres (5 miles) underground.

The USGS said the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.8.

"There is no negative information in the centre of Denizli so far," the city's mayor, Osman Zolan, told CNN Turk television.

"There are no reports of casualties so far. Our teams are working on understanding the damage."

Several smaller earthquakes have struck the region in recent days.

A 4.3-magnitude quake struck near Denizli earlier on Thursday hours after a separate tremor measuring 4.6 on the Richter sacle near the Greek island of Samos, close to the Turkish mainland.

On Saturday a 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck in the Mediterranean.

Turkey has more than 300 active fault lines and is vulnerable to earthquakes because of its location between the Eurasia and Africa/Arabia tectonic plates.