MIR GADKHEL, Afghanistan, April 17 (Reuters) - Dozens of people were feared dead and scores of houses destroyed by an earthquake in eastern Afghanistan early on Friday, villagers and a Reuters eyewitness said.

A Reuters Television cameraman in the village of Mir Gadkhel said villagers were scrambling through rubble of flattened houses to recover bodies after the quake, which struck before dawn. Villagers said as many as 40 people may have been killed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said a 5.1 magnitude quake hit 45 km (30 miles) west southwest of the Afghan city of Jalalabad early on Friday.

(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad; writing by Peter Graff)

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