Blasts rock eastern Turkey, six dead

A large explosion shook an area near a police station in the eastern Turkish town of Elazig on Thursday at 9:20am (7:20CET), killing at least three people and wounding close to 100, security sources said.

The attack happened just hours after a similar bombing killed three people and injured several, including about 20 police officers, elsewhere in the region.

Mahmut Varol, the deputy mayor for Elazig, told Haber Turk television the explosion occurred on the grounds of the police headquarters. Cars parked nearby also caught fire, he said.

Video footage by Dogan news agency showed a large cloud of smoke rising from the area of the blast and extensive damage to the facade of the police station. The windows of the four-story building and its wings were reportedly blown out cars were overturned.

Despite no one immediately claimed responsibility, authorities blamed that attack on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, which has launched a campaign of car bombings targeting police stations or roadside bomb attacks on police vehicles.

Turkish defence minister Fikri Isik told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the PKK was behind the attack.

Last week, PKK commander Cemil Bayik threatened increased attacks against police in Turkish cities.

Late on Wednesday, another car bomb exploded on a police station in the eastern province of Van, near the Iranian border, killing three people, two police officers and one civilian, and wounded 73, the local governor's office said in a statement.

Despite Van being a largely Kurdish community, in the lack of claims for the attack, the Van governor's office said the PKK was responsible.