As citizens struggled to help victims in Eastern Turkey after Sunday's 7.2 magnitude earthquake there Turkey’s state-run television reports that a group of inmates have escaped from prison on Sunday.

TRT Television gave no other detail and it was not immediately known how many had fled.

A city close to the Iranian border, Ercis experienced the hardest hit, which lies on the Ercis Fault in one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones.

“There are so many dead. Several buildings have collapsed. There is too much destruction,” Ercis mayor Zulfikar Arapoglu told NTV television. “We need urgent aid. We need medics.”

Neighboring Armenia and Iran also felt the earthquake.

People in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, 100 miles north of Ercis, rushed into the streets fearing buildings would collapse, however no damage or injuries were immediately reported.