Lorca's mayor Francisco Jodar said: "Unfortunately people have died as a result of cave-ins and falling debris. We're trying to find out if people have been trapped inside the collapsed houses."
The Murcia regional government said a hospital in Lorca was evacuated, with dozens of injured people were being treated at the scene. It said the ten deaths occurred with the second, stronger quake.
Large chunks of stone and brick fell from the facade of a church in Lorca as Spanish state TV was broadcasting live from the scene. A large church bell was also among the rubble. The broadcaster reported that schoolchildren usually gather at that spot around that time, and if it had happened 10 minutes later, a "tragedy" could have occurred.
Spanish TV showed images of cars that were partially crushed by falling rubble, and large cracks in buildings.
A doctor told the online edition of
El Pais
that she and her colleagues went into the streets and treated people with serious injuries "many unconscious".
"The ambulances could not reach them. They took more than 40 minutes," she said.
"I felt a tremendously strong movement, followed by a lot of noise, and I was really frightened,"
El Pais
quoted Lorca resident Juani Avellanada as saying.
A resident, Juana Ruiz, said her house split open with the quake and "all the furniture fell over," according to El Pais.
