Rescuers on Friday recovered the dead body of one of the two journalists missing underneath the rubble of an earthquake-shattered hotel as the death toll in the second earthquake to hit eastern Turkey in about two weeks rose to at least 26.

A colleague identified a body found in the rubble of the collapsed hotel in the eastern city of Van as that of Cem Emir, a reporter for the Dogan news agency, who had rushed to the region in the aftermath of a more powerful earthquake, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

A second reporter for the agency, Sebahattin Yilmaz, was still missing beneath the debris of the Bayram Hotel, one of the two hotels that fell apart when the 5.7-magnitude quake hit Van late on Wednesday.

"In our profession we always come across disasters," Dogan agency's general manager, Ugur Cebeci, said earlier as he watched rescuers in red overalls search through the debris of the once five-story hotel. "But we are grappling with helplessness here."

Relief workers - who had arrived in the city to help survivors of the earlier, more powerful earthquake that hit the region on October 23 - also became victims when the hotel, weakened by the earlier quake, collapsed on Wednesday. The fatalities include a Japanese relief worker who had come to distribute aid to quake survivors and eight employees of a company who were in Van to assemble temporary housing units for survivors.

Rescuers pulled out 14 bodies from the wreckage of the Bayram Hotel as well as the low-budget Aslan Hotel on Friday, raising the death toll to 26, according to state-run TRT television.

Authorities called off rescue operations at the Aslan, but rescuers continued their search for possible survivors at the Bayram, their work made more difficult by heavy snow that began to fall in the evening.

It was not known by Friday how many people remained buried in the rubble of the Bayram Hotel.

On Friday, Turkey notified countries offering help to deal with the new quake that it would accept tents and prefabricated homes to house survivors through the winter.

With even more people refusing to return to homes after the second quake, Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said authorities were setting up thousands of more tents for the homeless. He said some of the quake survivors would be housed at state-run hotels around the country until the spring.

And he urged citizens, meanwhile, to send heaters, blankets and food packages for the people of Van.