The quake hit the town of Defne at 1704 GMT and was strongly felt by AFP teams in Antakya and Adana, 200 kilometers to the north.
The European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said the tremor struck at a depth of 2 km.
The walls of badly damaged buildings crumbled while several people, apparently injured, called for help.
Muna Al Omar, a resident, said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the earthquake hit.
"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet," she said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms.
"Is there going to be another aftershock?" she asked.
Monday's tremblor was also felt in Egypt and Lebanon, Reuters reporters said.
The two larger earthquakes that hit on Feb. 6, which also rocked neighboring Syria, left more than a million homeless and killed far more than the latest official tally of 46,000 people in both countries.
According to AFAD, more than 6,000 aftershocks have been recorded since the 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkey and Syria.
This report was compiled from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
