Protests at relief efforts after latest quake in Turkey

RIOT police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse protesters angry at the state’s 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 on Wednesday night heaped misery on the region, where more than 600 people died following a major quake on October 23.

Many of the survivors of the earlier quake are still living in make-shift camps in the open air with temperatures 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, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Administration.

Two of those brought out from the rubble, including a 16-month-old baby, were flown by air ambulance to a hospital in the capital Ankara.

Deputy prime minister Besir Atalay, who visited the devastated Bayram Hotel with Turkey’s foreign minister, said 25 buildings had collapsed in Van, of which 23 were empty.

The owner of the flattened five-storey Bayram Hotel, Aslan Bayram, told broadcasters that building experts had given his 47-year-old property the all-clear following last month’s quake.

At the time of the latest quake, some 15 guests were believed to be in the hotel and some of these were pulled out yesterday morning.

“I am cold. Rescue me quickly,” said a man aged in his late 50s.

When rescued from the Bayram Hotel 11 hours after the quake, he was strapped into a stretcher and carried to a waiting ambulance.

Since last month’s quake, thousands of families have been living in tents, with temperatures dropping to freezing with the onset of winter. But many survivors have complained bitterly over the distribution of tents.

Overwhelmed by the demand in the early days of the disaster, the authorities decided families would be given tents only after their homes were checked by officials to see if they were habitable.