New Turkish Quake Death Toll Rises to 37

The death toll from a 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Turkey rose to 37 on Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"Unfortunately the latest toll is 37", Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying in the eastern town of Ercis.

The earlier toll stood at 32, including two journalists, who were in the area to report on last month's much deadlier earthquake, which killed more than 600 people.

Erdogan visited a tent city in Ercis, which bore the full brunt of the previous earthquake.

Rescue workers overnight retrieved the bodies of two reporters from the private Dogan news agency -- 26-year-old Cem Emir and 58-year-old Sebahattin Yilmaz -- from the debris of a hotel which was toppled by the latest earthquake.

Wednesday's quake was focused on Edremit town, some 15 kilometers from Van province, according to the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory.