Eight people including two police officers have been killed and dozens wounded in a huge explosion in central Diyarbakır in Turkey’s Southeast, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced on Friday.
Yıldırım said two police officers and six civilians were killed in Friday morning’s blast.
He said seven of the wounded were still being treated, adding that the others had been discharged from hospitals.
The Diyarbakır Governor’s Office said a car bomb went off at about 8 a.m. local time, adding that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had claimed responsibility.
The explosion took place near a police station in the Bağlar district.
Media reports said the explosion could be heard from several parts of the city and caused damage to nearby buildings.
The explosion occurred only hours after police detained 11 deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) including its co-chairs.
The government has stepped up a military campaign in the troubled Southeast to eradicate PKK militants, who have launched almost daily attacks since the rupture of a fragile cease-fire last year.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984, with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.