Turkey: Bomb blast at Gaziantep police station

A bomb attack outside the main police station in the city of Gaziantep killed one police officer and injured 13 others.

 

A bomb attack outside the police headquarters in Turkey's southeastern city of Gaziantep has killed one police officer and injured several others, officials said.

Turkish media reported that an explosive-laden vehicle blew up next to the safety barriers at the entrance of the city's main police station on Sunday.

Governor Ali Yerlikaya told CNN Turk that 13 people, including nine police officers, were injured in the explosion.

All roads in the region have been closed down as a safety precaution and police sources are now trying to find a white commercial vehicle linked to the bombing, DHA news agency said.

Police on edge

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Gaziantep, arrived at the explosion site 10 minutes after the blast.

"I counted at least six ambulances at the scene," she said. "We didn't see any smoke but we smelled it in the air."

Reporters were told that there may be a threat of another attack.

Our correspondent said she noticed that police officers at the station were "extremely nervous".

"Police officers wouldn't let anyone come within 100 metres of the police headquarters," she said. "They are literally cocking their weapons at anyone that approaches.

"At some point there was a woman, who came very close, and a police officer cocked his weapon and yelled at her to get back."

Dekker said roads around the police station had already been blocked off before the explosion, possibly due to an expected May 1 rally.

A May 1 rally in the city of Adana was cancelled earlier on Sunday as a result of a suicide bomb threat.

Elsewhere in Turkey on Sunday, three soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack blamed on Kurdish fighters during a military operation in the southeastern town of Nusaybin, Turkey's army said in a statement.

Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast has been hit by waves of violence in clashes between government security forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after a ceasefire fell apart last July.