Deadly bombing targets Turkish police
Car bomb explodes outside police station in central Kayseri province, leaving two officers dead and 20 others injured.
A suspected car bomb blast outside a police station in central Turkey has reportedly killed two police officers and wounded 20 other people.
Local television network, NTV, and the private Dogan news agency said on Friday that two assailants, who also died, were trying to ram their vehicle into the police station in the town of Pinarbasi, in the province of Kayseri.
A clash with police guards outside the building led to the detonation of a bomb, according to reports.
Idris Naim Sahin, the minister of interior, speaking to Al Jazeera, said that most of the wounded persons were children of the policemen.
The children of the officers had been staying in nearby police lodgings, he said.
He also described how the car had earlier sped through a police check point 90km away in neighbouring Kahramanmaras, ignoring police calls to stop.
Sahin said the security forces were expecting an attack, and he blamed the Kurdish separtist group, the PKK.
Television footage showed frantic scenes outside the police station, with fire engines and ambulances on site.
The report said at least five of the injured people appeared to be in serious condition.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the suspicion is likely to fall on the separatist PKK group.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, initiating a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.