Young men look at the debris of an apartment building today following a powerful earthquake in the town of Ercis in Van province, Turkey. The 7.2-magnitude quake, which struck Sunday, killed some 270 people in eastern Turkey.

ERCIS, Turkey — Four people were pulled alive from the rubble today when one managed to call for help on his cell phone after a 7.2-magnitude quake leveled buildings and killed some 270 people in eastern Turkey.

Dozens of people were trapped in mounds of concrete, twisted steel and construction debris after hundreds of buildings in two cities and mud-brick homes in nearby villages pancaked or partially collapsed in the earthquake that struck Sunday afternoon.

Worst-hit was Ercis — an eastern city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border that lies in one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones — where about 80 multistory buildings collapsed.

Yalcin Akay was dug out from a collapsed six-story building with a leg injury after he called a police emergency line on his phone and described his location, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Three others, including two children, were also rescued from the same building in Ercis some 20 hours after the quake.

Rescuers searched for the missing throughout the night under generator-powered floodlights as tearful family members waited by the debris. Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete, allowing residents to dig for the missing with shovels.

Aid groups scrambled to set up tents, field hospitals and kitchens to help the thousands left homeless or those too afraid to re-enter their homes.