A car bomb ripped through a police station in the city of Elazig at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT) as officers arrived for work. Three police officers were killed and 217 people were wounded, 85 of them police officers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

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16:17

Three police officers were killed and 170 people wounded by a car bomb at a police station in Turkey`s eastern city of Elazig on Thursday, the local governor`s office said, hours after a similar attack killed three people elsewhere in the region.

Footage on the CNN Turk channel showed offices inside the police station in ruins and filled with smoke after the bomb exploded just outside the complex at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT), when officers had already begun arriving for work.

No one immediately claimed responsibility, but Defence Minister Fikri Isik told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, was behind the attack.

"We have seen once more ... that the PKK is a bloody organization and does not hesitate to kill the people it says it is fighting for," he said. "The PKK acts according to the demands of global powers, not ... the people in the region."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim canceled his day`s schedule and was heading to Elazig with Isik and General Hulusi Akar, head of the armed forces, sources at Yildirim`s office said.

The provincial governor`s office said 14 of the wounded were in serious condition.

The PKK has carried out dozens of attacks on police and military posts since 2015 in the largely Kurdish southeast in its fight for greater autonomy for Turkey`s 15 million Kurds.

But Elazig, a conservative province that votes in large numbers for the ruling AK Party, had been spared violence until now.

Video footage showed a plume of black smoke rising above the city after the blast, which uprooted trees and gouged a large crater outside the police complex, located on a busy thoroughfare in the city of 420,000 people.

In Van province, further east, two police officers and one civilian were killed and 73 people were wounded late on Wednesday when a car bomb exploded near a police station, the local governor`s office said in a statement.

There was also no claim of responsibility for the attack in Van, a largely Kurdish province on the Iranian border. The Van governor`s office said the PKK was responsible.

The southeast has been scorched by violence since a 2-1/2-year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July last year. Thousands of militants and hundreds of soldiers and police officers have been killed, according to official figures. Rights groups say about 400 civilians have also been killed.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in violence since the PKK first took up arms in 1984.


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13:25

AT LEAST six people have been killed and 100 wounded in a suspected terror attack in eastern Turkey.

The hard-left Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is believed to have been behind the attack on a police station in Elazig this morning.

Footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area moments after the horrific blast at 9.20am local time (7.20am BST).

The PKK, a designated terror group, has frequently carried out attacks on police stations in Turkey`s largely Kurdish south-east since last year.

But Elazig, a conservative province that votes in large numbers for the ruling AK Party, had been spared violence until now.

Defence Minister Fikri Isik told the state-run news agency Anadolu: "The people see the real face of the PKK."

The blast uprooted trees and gouged a large crater outside the police complex, located on a busy thoroughfare in the city of 420,000 people.

Last night three people were killed and 40 were wounded in a separate car bomb attack on a police station in Van, near the Iranian border.

Responding to the Van attack, a government official said security forces had launched an operation to "arrest members of the separatist terrorist organisation".

More than 40,000 people have been killed in violence since the PKK, which wants greater autonomy for Turkey`s 15 million Kurds, formed in 1984.


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11:46

At least three people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in a car bomb attack on a police station in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig on Thursday, security sources said, hours after a similar bombing killed three people elsewhere in the region.

Footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area in the immediate aftermath of the blast and extensive damage to the facade of the police station.

Turkey`s Dogan news agency said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group was behind the attack. The group has frequently carried out attacks on police stations in Turkey`s largely Kurdish southeast in recent months.

On Wednesday, three people were killed and 40 were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police station in the eastern province of Van near the Iranian border on Wednesday, state broadcaster TRT said, citing the local governor.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for that attack.

The mainly Kurdish southeast has been scorched by violence since a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the state and the PKK collapsed in July last year.

The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.


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11:23

A large explosion shook an area near a police station in the eastern Turkish town of Elazig on Thursday and several people were wounded, the Dogan news agency reported, hours after a car bomb killed three people and wounded 40 elsewhere in the region.

Dogan video footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area of the blast, the cause of which was not clear. Kurdish militants have carried out frequent bomb attacks in southeast Turkey in recent months although Elazig has not been an area of significant conflict.

On Wednesday, three people were killed and 40 were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police station in the eastern province of Van near the Iranian border on Wednesday, state broadcaster TRT said, citing the local governor.

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