OKCULAR, Turkey — Homes in eastern areas of Turkey prone to earthquakes must be better built to withstand jolts like the magnitude 6 temblor that toppled village houses and killed 51 people this week, the Turkish government acknowledged today.

Hundreds of quake survivors sheltered overnight in tents after being left homeless by Monday's pre-dawn quake, which exposed Turkey's lag in constructing sturdy homes near the country's two major fault lines.

The earthquake — which hit near the remote village of Basyurt in Elazig province — caught many people in their sleep, shaking the area's poorly made buildings into piles of rubble.

The Kandilli seismology center said there have been more than 100 aftershocks, including one measuring 5.5, since the initial quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey listed as having a magnitude of 5.9.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed many of the 51 deaths from Monday's quake on the shoddy mud-brick buildings typical of the eastern region.

He pledged the government housing agency would build quakeproof homes in the area.

"We must ensure building resilience," Labor Minister Faruk Celik said. "We are living on the earthquake zone, and we don't know what can happen to us from one day to the next."