Blast hits mainly Kurdish town in Turkey
Seven police officers among the wounded as roadside bomb in Hakkari, in the country’s southeast, leaves one person dead.
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The police used water cannons and smoke grenades to disperse the crowd after scuffles broke out following the blast |
At least one person has been killed and 27 others wounded, including seven police officers, in an explosion that rocked the mainly Kurdish city of Hakkari in the southeast Turkey, state-run Anatolia news agency reported, citing authorities.
A hand-made bomb, comprising of five kilogrammes of TNT explosives, was detonated in the centre of the city on Thursday afternoon, as a police car was passing by, police told Anatolia news agency.
The provincial governor of Hakkari, Muammer Turker, said that the explosion occurred on a busy street in the southeastern city close to Iraqi border, as the police vehicle was driving by.
Scuffles broke out between locals and riot police, and police used water cannons and smoke grenades to disperse the crowd.
Governor Turker pointed a finger at the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the bombing, but the Kurdish rebels denied their involvement on Friday.
“Our forces have no connection to the bomb attack that killed one Kurdish youngster in Hakkari city centre,” the PKK said in a statement, carried by pro-Kurdish news agency Firat.
Kurdish fighters who seek autonomy in the region have used roadside bombings against military and police vehicles there in the past.
The fighters, who belong to the PKK, have been branded as terrorists by the US and the European Union.
The PKK waged arms struggle against the state in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 40,000 lives.