Eastern Turkey was hit by a major earthquake Wednesday night, less than three weeks after a 7.2 earthquake killed more than 500 people in the same region. Wednesday’s 5.7 magnitude tremor struck about 9 miles south of the town of Van. It was 3 miles deep.
Authorities say 25 buildings collapsed, but only 3 of them were occupied. The other 22 had been empty since they were damaged in the October 23rd earthquake. Two of the collapsed buildings were hotels where many journalists covering the aftermath of the first quake were housed. Hundreds of people are believed to be trapped in the now destroyed hotels and rescue workers have been working frantically to find any survivors. So far at least 10 people have been found dead while another 28 people were pulled from the rubble alive.
Protests broke out in the streets not far from where rescuers worked in the hotel rubble as angry residents blamed authorities for Wednesday’s causalities. They accused officials of negligence in their safety inspection of the hotels following the first earthquake and called for the resignation of Gov. Munir Karaloglu. Police later broke up the demonstration with batons and pepper spray.
###
Click here for more World News
