Turkey avalanche: At least 28 dead after second landslide hits rescue workers

An avalanche has slammed into a mountain road in eastern Turkey, wiping out a huge team of rescue workers sent to find two people missing in an earlier avalanche.

Officials said 23 rescue workers were killed while others were still buried under the snow.

Wednesday’s avalanche increased the overall death toll from the disaster to 28.

Some 300 emergency service workers were called to a road near the mountain-surrounded town of Bahcesehir in Van province, which borders Iran, after an avalanche struck late on Tuesday, killing five people.

Governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez said 25 emergency service members were rescued from under the snow and taken to hospital. This takes the death toll to 28 in total.

There was no further information on their conditions.

Five people were killed and two others were missing after the first avalanche buried a snow-clearing vehicle and a minibus. The vehicle's operator and seven passengers escaped alive.

The second avalanche struck on Wednesday as hundreds of emergency workers were searching for the two missing victims, private NTV television reported, adding that fog and heavy snow were hampering the rescue efforts.

State-run Anadolu Agency said the operator, Bahattin Karagulle, was trapped beneath the snow for some 25 minutes before he managed to break a window and escape.

The agency quoted him as saying that he walked towards a village before he was picked up by a vehicle and managed to seek help.