7 killed, dozens feared trapped after magnitude-5.6 quake in E. Turkey

Seven people were killed and 23 others injured in a magnitude-5.6 quake in eastern Turkey, the Turkish government said Thursday. The quake hit the Edremit town of Van province at 21:23 local time (1923 GMT) Wednesday, according to Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute. About 25 buildings, including two hotels, collapsed in the quake, the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate said, adding that the Turkish Red Crescent immediately dispatched 986 tents and 783 rescue workers to Van province. Six-storied Bayram Hotel collapsed in the quake in Marsal Fevzi Cakmak Street in the center of Van city. Journalists and officials from the Turkish Red Crescent were reportedly staying in it. Some are believed to have been stranded. The Bayram Hotel, Van's best-known hotel, was at least 40 years old, and had been renovated last year. Some of its guests were journalists who were covering the aftermath of the previous 7.2- magnitude quake in Van, which killed 605 people and injured 4,152 others. Xinhua reporters also stayed in the Bayram Hotel a week ago, experiencing tremors and witnessing cracks in the wall. As Turkey's Dogan news agency said that two of its reporters were missing, Ozgur Gunes, a cameraman for Turkey's Cihan news agency, was quoted as saying by local Haber Turk television as saying that some trapped journalists had sent text messages to colleagues asking for rescue. Gunes said he had left the hotel before Wednesday's quake, but rushed back to collect his camera afterwards, only to find that the building had been toppled. "There was dust everywhere and the hotel was flattened," he said, adding that the building had some small cracks before the quake, but the guests were told that there was no structural damage. Some foreign rescue workers who came to help the survivors of the previous quake were also staying at the same hotel. Japan's Association for Aid and Relief said that one of its staff members, Miyuki Konnai, who rushed to Turkey to help the quake victims, was pulled out alive from the rubble of the Bayram Hotel, but another staffer, Atsushi Miyazaki, was missing, according to a report by Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman on Thursday. The exact number of trapped people at the Bayram Hotel was still unknown, but dozens are believed to be trapped, said hotel owner Aslan Bayram via NTV television. He said that the hotel had 27 guests, about half of whom were inside when the quake hit. But he added that he had no idea about how many customers were in a dessert shop at the entrance of the building then.