Four killed, 17 wounded in blast in southeast Turkey -sources

Record ID: 103676

  • Title: Four killed, 17 wounded in blast in southeast Turkey -sources
  • Date: 12th May 2016
  • Summary: DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY (MAY 12, 2016) (REUTERS) AMBULANCES LINED UP NEAR BLAST SITE MEDIC CARRYING A STRETCHER WALKING MEDICS STANDING IN FRONT OF AMBULANCE / WOUNDED MAN SITTING INSIDE THE AMBULANCE LOCAL RESIDENTS AND OFFICIALS SIFTING THROUGH THE SITE AMBULANCES LINED UP AT SITE VARIOUS OF WOMEN MOURNING VARIOUS OF MEN TAKING DISTRESSED WOMEN AWAY VARIOUS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS, MEDICS AND RESCUE TEAMS AT SITE LOCALS MOURNING PEOPLE WAITING FIREMEN AT SITE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE COMBING THROUGH THE SITE, SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE
  • Embargoed: 28th May 2016 00:33
  • Keywords: Turkey blast PKK Kurds Diyarbakir
  • Location: SARIKAMIS DISTRICT, DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY
  • City: SARIKAMIS DISTRICT, DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014HN34G7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Four suspected bomb makers were killed and 17 people wounded on Thursday evening (May 12) when an explosion ripped through a village in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, security sources and the Interior Ministry said.
    The blast occurred at about 10:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) in the Sarikamis district, about 25 km (15 miles) from the region's biggest city of Diyarbakir, as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants loaded explosives onto a small truck, according to the Interior Ministry.
    A photograph taken from a police helicopter and provided to reporters by the Interior Ministry showed what appeared to be a massive crater in a field caused by the explosion.
    Electricity in Sarikamis had been cut and homes near the blast site suffered damaged, CNN Turk reported.
    Two of the wounded were in critical condition, security sources said. Witnesses reported hearing the explosion as far away as Diyarbakir.
    The blast followed a car bomb attack near a military facility earlier in the day in an Istanbul suburb that wounded seven people, and a car bombing in Diyarbakir on Tuesday that targeted police and killed three people.
    Turkey has been hit by a series of bombings this year, including two suicide attacks in tourist areas of Istanbul blamed on Islamic State and two car bombings in the capital Ankara, which killed a total of 66 people and were claimed by a PKK offshoot.
    After the blast, security forces set up checkpoints at Sarikamis and searched vehicles entering and leaving the village.
    Security sources said the blasts occurred as militants loaded explosives onto the truck that they intended to use in an attack on security forces.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register