Bulldozers replaced sniffer dogs yesterday as search efforts wound down in quake-hit eastern Turkey and the death toll rose to over 600.

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.

“People whose houses collapsed started to search for new houses but there has been a big increase in prices... this is not ethical,” Salih Ozbek, the head of Van Real Estate Agencies’ Association, told Anatolia.

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 said. 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 US is the latest country to offer help.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay thanked the international community “for its concern”.