Turkey earthquake toll passes 600: Officials

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The death toll in eastern Turkey's devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Sunday passed 600, the government's emergency unit said.

The number who lost their lives in the October 23 tremor stood at 601, the unit said on its website. Officials said earlier that 4,150 people had been injured while 231 had been pulled alive from the rubble.

Turkish quake victims shiver as mercury dips

Bulldozers replaced sniffer dogs on Sunday as search efforts wound down in quake-hit eastern Turkey.

With temperatures dipping to below freezing the biggest problem now facing survivors in Van province was a lack of tents and heaters, media reports said.

Health officials in Ercis, which bore the brunt of the 7.2-magnitude quake, warned survivors against drinking tap water due to fears the supply had been contaminated with sewage, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Many survivors were still camped out in tents or makeshift shelters, fearing further building collapses with rain and snow adding to their misery.

Some whose homes were damaged had tried to find new accommodation only to discover that unscrupulous landlords had hiked rents.

City Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar has said that new housing will be ready in Van city by September 2012 for people left homeless by the quake.

In the meantime, Turkey plans to provide temporary, pre-fabricated shelter units.

Two Israeli planes, carrying five prefabricated housing units landed in the eastern province of Erzurum early on Sunday, Israeli embassy official Nizar Amer told the media. Israel earlier sent five others.

Turkey has accepted help from dozens of countries, including Israel and Armenia, both states with which it has frosty relations. The United States is the latest country to offer help.