Dozens trapped after second quake hits Turkey

At least seven people are dead and dozens are trapped in collapsed buildings after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck eastern Turkey.

Rescue crews scrambled to reach people trapped in the city of Van, which is still reeling from a magnitude 7.2 quake which hit late last month and killed at least 600 people.

There are reports the quake toppled around 25 buildings, including hotels.

Search and rescue teams worked through the night and rescued 23 people from the ruins of two hotels, a statement from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Administration (AFAD) said.

But state television channel TRT said at least 100 people might still be trapped under collapsed buildings.

One of the collapsed buildings was the six-storey Bayram Hotel in the Van city centre, Turkey's NTV television said. The hotel was mostly occupied by journalists and teams from the Turkish Red Crescent.

Local MP Nazmi Gur says many of those trapped are rescuers who are in the area for the clean-up operation after last month's quake.

"I'm in front of one of the buildings which collapsed. It was a hotel, and unfortunately around 40 people are in there," he said.

"Most of them are journalists and rescue teams. And now rescue teams are working to rescue people."

Deputy prime minister Besir Atalay, who visited the collapsed Bayram Hotel with Turkey's foreign minister, said of the 25 buildings that had collapsed in Van, 22 were empty. Only two hotels and a residential block had people living there.

Two of those rescued, including a 16-month-old, were flown by to a hospital in the capital, Ankara.

Panic

Restaurateur Shahin Tokay was at home with his family in Van when the quake struck. He told the Turkish media they were lucky to avoid being crushed.

"I was in my house with my children and that house, nine o'clock, and earthquake happened again and so I try to jump in my house. I get my leg damaged and my house really get big damage and still big panic here - no electricity," he said.

"We don't what happened to the rest of the country."

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 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.

The epicentre of the quake was in the Edremit district, 15 kilometres from Van province.

The local media, citing data from the Kandilli Observatory, measured the quake as 5.6, but the US Geological Survey said it was magnitude 5.7.