Turkish police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse protesters angry at relief efforts after an earthquake, the second in eastern Turkey within three weeks, killed at least eight people in the city of Van.
The clash broke out as rescue teams searched for survivors after a 5.7 magnitude tremor last night heaped misery on the predominantly Kurdish region, where more than 600 people perished following a major quake on October 23rd.
Many of the survivors of the earlier quake are still living in make-shift camps in the open air and temperatures are plummeting. The latest tremor cut power to the area.
Some 200 demonstrators chanted for the resignation of the provincial governor in a rally close to two city centre hotels that collapsed during the latest quake.
Working through the night, searchers rescued 25 people from the ruins of the hotels, said a statement from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Administration (AFAD). Two of those brought out from the rubble, including a 16-month-old, were flown by air ambulance to a hospital in the capital Ankara.
State television channel TRT said at least 100 people may still be trapped under collapsed buildings after the magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck 16km south of Van at 7.23pm Irish time yesterday.
One reporter said as many as 70 people may have been staying at one of the hotels.
Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, who visited the collapsed Bayram Hotel with Turkey's foreign minister, said 25 buildings had collapsed in Van, of which 22 were empty. Only two hotels and a residential block had people living there.
The owner of the flattened five-storey hotel, Aslan Bayram, told broadcasters that building experts had given his 47-year-old building the all-clear after last month's quake.
Rescue workers pulled a Japanese woman to safety from the rubble of the Bayram Hotel almost six hours after the quake, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
Miyuki Konnai was part of a rescue and relief team sent to Van from Japan after the first quake. She was found injured but conscious and could be seen talking to her rescuers as she was carried to an ambulance.
Wednesday's earthquake comes after a 7.6 magnitude tremor hit just northeast of Van on October 23rd. There have been hundreds of aftershocks since, and thousands of people are still camping out in tents in freezing conditions.
Turkey is criss-crossed with seismic faultiness and experiences small tremors nearly every day. Some 20,000 people were killed by two large earthquakes in western Turkey in 1999.
Reuters