A powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake in eastern Turkey has killed at least 29 people, with the death toll expected to rise as rescuers search for survivors under the rubble in freezing winter conditions.

The quake late on Friday injured at least a further 1,200 people in the hardest-hit Elazig and Malatya provinces and was followed by more than 390 aftershocks, 14 of which had magnitudes above 4 which were felt as far away as Iran and Lebanon.

Rescue teams used their hands, drills and mechanical diggers through the night, managing to pull 39 people from the rubble alive as the temperature dropped to -8C (17.6F). At least 22 more people are trapped under collapsed buildings, Turkey’s disaster and emergency authority (Afad) said on Saturday, and rescue efforts were still under way at three different sites in Elazig.

Hundreds of people waited anxiously behind police barriers for any sign of missing relatives. Among those found alive was a pregnant woman who was rescued 12 hours after the quake hit, although her 12-year-old son later died in hospital.

Tensions remained high as one resident accused the government of lying about the extent of the disaster. “They claim that only four people are trapped under the rubble. It is not true. I have five relatives in that building,” Suat, 45, told Agence France-Presse. “There are four floors and three flats per floor. If there were five people per flat, do the maths. Why are they lying?”

Nearly 2,000 search-and-rescue personnel have been sent to the region and thousands of beds, blankets and tents have been provided, the Turkish presidency said, while state carrier Turkish Airlines put on extra flights to Elazig from Ankara and Istanbul to help transport rescuers. Several thousand people are being housed in local sports gymnasiums and schools.

“Our houses collapsed … we cannot go inside them,” Sinisi, 32, from Sivrice, the town at the epicentre of the quake, told Reuters. “In our village some people lost their lives. I hope God will help us.

“Our animals died. Our families gathered around the fire to spend the night, covered with blankets.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cancelled his schedule in Istanbul to fly to the disaster zone on Saturday, state media said. “I wish God’s mercy to our brothers who lost their lives in the earthquake, and urgent healing for those who were injured,” he said on Twitter after the earthquake struck at about 9pm the night before.

The US Geological Survey assessed the earthquake’s magnitude as 6.7, slightly lower than Afad’s assessment, adding that it struck near the East Anatolian fault in an area that has suffered no documented large ruptures since an earthquake in 1875.

David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at the Open University, said: “This particular earthquake began at a depth of about only 10km [6.2 miles]. This is so shallow that there was not much rock in the way to absorb the strength of the seismic waves radiating from the source before they reached the surface, hence the ground shaking was stronger than it would have been for a deeper earthquake of the same magnitude.”

Turkey, which encompasses several active fault lines, is no stranger to deadly earthquakes. The most devastating in recent history was a 7.4-magnitude quake, which hit the western Marmara region in 1999, leaving more than 17,000 dead.

Experts have long warned that the most potentially dangerous is the North Anatolian fault, where the Anatolian and Eurasian plates meet. The fault lies underneath Istanbul, home to 16 million people, which in recent decades has encouraged widespread building without enforcing earthquake-resistant measures.

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake in the Marmara Sea caused panic in Istanbul last September, injuring 34 people and shaking and damaging hundreds of buildings.