One person died and around 30 were injured when an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale shook western Turkey Friday, the Anatolia news agency said.
The deceased person suffered a heart attack in the province of Konya, which borders on the region of Afyon, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Ankara and which was the epicenter of the quake.
The region's governor Ahmet Ozyurt had told Anatolia earlier that nobody had been killed by the quake, whose shock-waves were felt in neighboring provinces.
At least 29 people were injured in the seismic disturbance, Anatolia said, five of them when a minaret toppled over.
Six others were hurt jumping out of a window in a moment of panic, while four people were under observation suffering from shock, the agency added.
Material damage was limited, local authorities said, with electricity supplies cut in some areas and telephone lines jammed as people tried to make emergency calls.
The agency said residents of the area had been invited to spend the night outside near open-air heaters rather than return to their homes.
The main tremors hit at 6:44 PM (1644 GMT) not far from the provincial capital Bolvadin, the Kandili seismological institute said.
Two massive earthquakes in Turkey in August and November 1999 killed more than 20,000 people and left tens of thousands of injured -- ANKARA (AFP)
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