They used flashlights, shovels, heavy machinery and their hands to lift the debris, and climbed over collapsed buildings in search of victims.
At least 217 people were killed in Sunday's quake, said Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin, the Anatolian news agency reported Monday. The previous official toll was 138.
Another 350 people were injured in the quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey said had a magnitude of 7.2.
Roughly 20 aftershocks rattled eastern Turkey, in one of the nation's poorest areas. The largest had a magnitude of 6.0.
One hundred people were killed in Van, while 117 were killed in Ercis, said Sahin, the Anatolian news agency reported. It also said that schools will be closed for a week in Van.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters the death toll is likely to climb as rescue teams work through the night to save people still trapped in the rubble.
The prime minister said 55 buildings collapsed in Ercis on the north shore of Lake Van, while the Turkish Red Crescent had said earlier that some 25 apartment buildings and a student dormitory collapsed in the town.
Local rescuers took many wounded people out of the dormitory, a Red Crescent statement said, without saying exactly how many.
A health services building also collapsed, along with part of a hospital, CNN sister network CNN Turk reported. The injured were being treated in the hospital's garden.
"People are really scared," said CNN Turk reporter Nevsin Mengu. "The survivors are now trying to survive the cold weather."
She said many residents are not returning to their houses, but sleeping on rooftops or in the streets. It was not clear whether their homes were uninhabitable, or whether they were just too frightened. Electricity and natural gas were off in most of the city.
Speaking from Van, Mengu said the death toll is almost sure to rise as rescue teams have not yet reached some of the smaller villages. Trucks carrying medical aid and food were seen driving into Van.
Almost all the houses were destroyed in several villages in Van province. Most of the houses there were made of sun-dried mud bricks, Mr. Erdogan said.
More than 18 aftershocks, measuring magnitude—4 and above, occurred.
The Turkish earthquake observatory earlier said the toll could reach 1,000.
“The toll from this earthquake could be 500 to 1,000,” Mustafa Erdik, head of the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
The Istanbul-based Kandilli seismology centre originally reported that the earthquake was 6.6 on the Richter scale, but later revised it up to 7.2.
The epicentre was located in the village of Tabanli in Van province, which borders Iran.
TV footage showed residents spilling out into the streets in panic as rescue workers struggled to save people believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings.
“There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is so much destruction. We need urgent aid, we need medics,” Ercis mayor Zulfikar Arapoglu told NTV television.
Turkish Red Crescent is sending tents, blankets and other aid materials to the quake—hit province, according to Anatolia.
Turkey, lying atop the North Anatolian fault, is plagued by frequent earthquakes. On March 8, 2010, at least 38 people died after a magnitude—6 earthquake hit Elazig province.
On Aug 17, 1999, two powerful earthquakes, measuring 6.7 and 7.4, hit northwestern and western Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.
A major earthquake had hit Van in November 1976, with 5,291 confirmed dead. The province has a population of just over one million.
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