At least 16 people have died and dozens were pulled alive from rubble after a powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Albania near the capital Tirana.

The earthquake, which was felt across the Balkan region, was the most powerful to hit Albania in decades, striking before dawn and collapsing at least three large apartment buildings.

Residents rushed into the streets to escape shaking structures, as the United States Geological Survey said the shallow quake struck halfway between the capital and the nearby port town of Durres.

At least 600 have been treated in hospital so far, as Albania’s president described the situation near the epicentre – a small town called Thumane ​– as “very dramatic”.

Ilir Meta said he would order his cabinet to request urgent international assistance, adding: “All efforts are being made to take the people out of the ruins.”

Video posted to social media from Durres showed at least one large building there reduced to rubble, and officials said a man had died after panicking and jumping from a shaking building.

It was the second quake to hit Albania in two months. Officials said the earlier 5.6-magnitude tremor, which struck on 21 September and damaged around 500 homes, was the most powerful in 30 years.

A spokesperson for the Albanian defence ministry confirmed there were people trapped under rubble in Durres, and later that seven bodies had been recovered. “Firefighters and army staff are helping residents,” the spokesperson said.

Other footage on social media showed buildings with large cracks and one apartment with a bedroom wall missing.

An unidentified man in Durres, with a wound dressing on his right cheek, told News24 TV his daughter and niece were among those trapped in a collapsed apartment building.

“I talked with my daughter and niece on the phone. They said they are well and are waiting for the rescue. Could not talk to my wife. There are other families, but I could not talk to them,” the man said.

In Thumane, 48-year-old Marjana Gjoka said she was sleeping in her apartment on the fourth floor of a five-storey building when the quake shattered the top floors.

“The roof collapsed on our head and I don’t know how we escaped. God helped us,” said Ms Gjoka, whose three-year-old niece was among four people in the apartment when the quake struck.

All government agencies were on alert and “intensively working to save lives at the fatal spots in Durres and Thumane”, prime minister Edi Rama said.

He wrote on Facebook: “It is a dramatic moment where we should preserve calm, stay alongside each other to cope with this shock.”

Defence minister Olta Xhacka said in a televised statement later on Tuesday that search operations continued. It was not known how many more people were trapped under rubble.

“These are extremely difficult operations, where you have to work slowly because there is a high risk of further collapse, endangering not only residents, but also those trapped, and the rescuers themselves.”

Power cuts were reported across a number of neighbourhoods in the capital, while there were also many witnesses describing significant shaking across the region, including in Kosovo.

Located along the Adriatic and Ionian seas, Albania experiences regular seismic activity.

Several smaller tremors were recorded in the hour before the main quake, which also was felt in the southern Italian region of Puglia.