A 5.7-magnitude earthquake has caused a six-storey hotel and other buildings to collapse in eastern Turkey, trapping people inside, according to media reports, two weeks after a strong quake in the region killed around 600 people.

State-run TRT television said the quake brought down the hotel as well as some buildings that had been damaged in the earlier quake in the province of Van. TV footage showed residents and rescuers trying to lift debris to evacuate people believed to be trapped under the hotel in Van's provincial capital.

Sky Turk television said the hotel was being used by journalists and aid workers who were in the city. It was not known how many people were trapped inside. At least one person was brought out of the building alive, NTV television said.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake measured 5.7-magnitude. NTV television said rescue teams were being sent to the region from the capital Ankara and other areas, a week after workers had begun clearing debris from the earlier quake.

About 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since the 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the province on 23 October. Many residents had been living in tents, despite the cold, too afraid to return to their homes. At least 2,000 buildings were destroyed in the stronger quake and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for habitation.

Witnesses said that explosive plumes and jets could be seen on the ocean surface from the underwater volcano which began erupting last month. Some of the material is being ejected as high as 60ft into the air.

The regional government of the Spanish Canary Island issued a 'yellow' volcanic eruption alert - the second on a four-level scale. La Restinga's 600 residents were evacuated last week after the volcanic activity began.

Now new evacuations have been called for people living along the southern end of the island. Authorities have also shut down access to La Restinga.

Ships have been ordered away from waters around the port and aircraft have been banned from flying over the island's southern tip. The regional government of the Canary Islands says scientists have detected airborne volcanic fragments called pyroclasts rising from the sea off La Restinga.

The government said it awaited scientific reports on the danger posed by pyroclasts, but a research vessel that was collecting samples there has been ordered to stop.

Fears of an eruption have been going since the end of July, when El Hierro experienced the first of what has become more than 10,000 tremors - collectively known as an earthquake 'swarm'.

Residents were evacuated from some areas at the end of September when volcanic activity increased to more than 150 tremors in 24 hours. The army was put on standby for a mass evacuation.

Volcano expert Juan Carlos Carrecedo said at the time: 'There is a ball of magma rising to the surface producing a series of ruptures which generate seismic activity.

'We don't know if that ball of magma will break through the crust and cause an eruption.'

But he warned an eruption was possible 'in days, weeks or months'. The last eruption on El Hierro was in 1793 and lasted for a month while the last one in the Canary Islands as a whole took place on the island of La Palma in 1971.

Source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk