A power line tower downed by the passing of Hurricane Maria lies on top of a house in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 7. Photo: AFP

Protests broke out in earthquake-hit Puerto Rico on Monday as a judicial investigation was opened into the weekend discovery of unused emergency supplies leftover from the devastating Hurricane Maria.

On Saturday, a Facebook user posted a video showing a warehouse in the southern city of Ponce, filled with undistributed emergency supplies such as tents, diapers, baby formula, radios, batteries and thousands of bottles of water, which appeared to have expired.

Some of the aid was apparently intended for victims of Hurricane Maria, which ravaged the island in September 2017.

"According to the findings that suggest inaction or omissions in the management of the warehouse and supplies by some officials," the government referred the investigation to the Justice Department, Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced said in a statement.

She also fired Carlos Acevedo, head of the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency, and housing secretary Fernando Gil Ensenat in an immediate response to the video.

Some 5,000 people are living in tents after more than 1,000 earthquake tremors have rattled the US territory since December.

Dozens of protesters also took to the streets of the capital San Juan Monday against Vazquez Garced, in a scene reminiscent of July demonstrations demanding the resignation of then-governor Ricardo Rossello.

AFP