Rescue teams are searching for dozens of people trapped in rubble¹ after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing² at least seven people.

土耳其东部发生5.6级地震，至少7人死亡。目前救援人员正在全力搜救被困在废墟下的数十人。

Twenty-five buildings have collapsed³, including a six-storey hotel in the city of Van, where journalists and aid workers were staying, officials said.

Emergency workers said 23 people have been rescued alive but that many more remain unaccounted for（下落不明的） .

Last month, a 7.2-magnitude quake in the same area killed 600 people.

All but three of the buildings which toppled in Wednesday's quake were empty, Turkey's deputy prime minister said, as they had evacuated⁴ following the 23 October tremor⁵.

Besir Atalay said that the rescue work was concentrating on those three - two collapsed hotels and one apartment building.

'Weakened buildings'

The quake hit late on Wednesday at 21:23 (19:23 GMT) with its epicentre in the Edremit district, 16km (10 miles) south of Van, the US Geological Survey said.

Television pictures from Van showed residents and rescuers trying to lift debris⁶ to free people trapped under ruined buildings.

Rescue workers were using high-powered lights to work through the night.

Mr Atalay said rescue teams were being sent to the region from the capital, Ankara, and other areas.

He said the quake toppled a school and a number of mudbrick（泥砖） homes, as well as two hotels.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Turkey says the city became the headquarters of the relief effort for the last quake, and has been flooded by aid workers and journalists.

Our correspondent says some of the weakened buildings are now thought to have been brought down in the latest tremor.

Some of the journalists trapped in the collapsed Bayram Hotel had sent text messages to colleagues asking to be rescued, Associated Press quoted a Turkish cameraman as saying.

Turkey's Dogan news agency said two of its reporters were missing, AP news agency reported.

Alper Kucuk from the Turkish Red Crescent told the BBC they were sending two more planeloads of relief supplies to the area, including tents and blankets, as well as rescue personnel.

Thousands of people were made homeless by the 23 October earthquake, with many still living in tents in the cold weather.

Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines.

Two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost 20,000 people in densely⁷ populated parts of the north-west of the country.