VAN, Turkey (Reuters) ? 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 predominantly Kurdish region, where more than 600 people perished following a major quake on Oct 23.
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 center 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.
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. There were only people in the two hotels.
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 after last month's quake.
At the time of the latest quake, some 15 guests were believed to be in the hotel and some were pulled out on Thursday morning.
"I am cold. Rescue me quickly," said a man aged around 55-60 years old.
When rescued from the Bayram Hotel 11 hours after the quake, he was strapped into a stretcher and carried away 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.
Many people had been too frightened to return to homes with cracked walls and ceilings, as multiple aftershocks rattled the region for days afterwards.
The latest quake struck 16 km (9 miles)south of Van at 1923 GMT on Wednesday, while the epicentre of the October 23 quake was just northeast of Van.
A tremor of 5.7 magnitude would not normally cause significant damage but thousands of buildings sustained damage in last month's quake.
Atalay, responding to journalists questions over why one of the hotels had been given the all clear, said only preliminary, rather than definitive assessments on structural damage had been carried out on the building.
Some 22 aircraft were carrying rescue and medical teams to the region, AFAD said.
JAPANESE WOMAN RESCUED
Rescue workers pulled a Japanese woman to safety from the rubble of the Bayram Hotel almost six hours after the quake, but
a Japanese man succumbed to his injuries, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
The woman, 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.
Television footage showed panicked people running through the streets and ambulances rushing through the city with their sirens wailing. Medical staff treated one unconscious person lying on an ambulance stretcher.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who had been in the nearby town of Ercis at the time of the quake on Wednesday, visited the crisis coordination center in Van, Anatolian said. Ercis was the worst hit area in last month's quake.
Davutoglu said about 100 people were being treated for minor injuries in Van, broadcaster NTV reported.
Turkey is criss-crossed with seismic faultines and experiences small tremors nearly every day. Some 20,000 people were killed by two large earthquakes in western Turkey in 1999.
(Writing by Daren Butler and Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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