A second avalanche slammed into a mountain road in eastern Turkey on Wednesday, killing at least eight rescue workers and leaving 20 others buried under the snow, a local mayor said.

The emergency crew had been sent to the site to find two other people missing in a previous avalanche.

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