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| Turkey explosion: At least three killed and 50 injured as car bomb rocks city of Elazig | Turkey explosion: At least three killed and 50 injured as car bomb rocks city of Elazig |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| At least three people have been killed and 50 injured in a suspected car bombing in the Turkish city of Elazig. | At least three people have been killed and 50 injured in a suspected car bombing in the Turkish city of Elazig. |
| Witnesses said the blast struck near a local police station on Thursday morning, hours after another car bomb was detonated near the Iranian border. | Witnesses said the blast struck near a local police station on Thursday morning, hours after another car bomb was detonated near the Iranian border. |
| Local suspicion quickly turned to Kurdish separatist groups but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. | Local suspicion quickly turned to Kurdish separatist groups but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. |
| Footage showed dozens of people running from the explosion in Elazig, which partly destroyed several buildings and left the street strewn with rubble and overturned cars. | |
| Inside the police station, officers searched for their colleagues through offices filled with debris, after windows were shattered and walls and ceilings blown down by the force of the blast. | |
| A large plume of smoke was seen rising from the area of the blast as emergency services gathered at the scene at 9.20am local time (7.20am BST). | |
| Kurdish militants have carried out frequent bomb attacks in south-eastern parts of Turkey in recent months but Elazig, in Eastern Anatolia, has not been an area of significant conflict. | |
| On Wednesday night, three people were killed and 40 were wounded when a car bomb exploded near another police station in the eastern province of Van near the Iranian border. | On Wednesday night, three people were killed and 40 were wounded when a car bomb exploded near another police station in the eastern province of Van near the Iranian border. |
| Local officials said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was behind the attack. | Local officials said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was behind the attack. |
| Clashes between militants and the Turkish military resumed last year after a fragile peace process collapsed. | |
| More than 600 Turkish security personnel and thousands of PKK militants have been killed, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, while human rights groups say hundreds of civilians have also been killed. | |
| Tens of thousands of people since the PKK, with is proscribed as a terrorist group by the British Government and others, took up arms demanding autonomy in Turkey in 1984. | |
| The latest attacks came amid continuing international alarm over the government’s response to a failed coup to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. | |
| Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said more than 40,000 people had been detained since the attempt on 15 July and about half have been formally arrested pending charges. | |
| Those arrested include journalists and academics accused of supporting the Gulen movement, which authorities blame for the coup, and thousands of public sector workers have been suspended or sacked. | |
| Mark Toner, a spokesperson for the US State Department, raised concern over the closure of the pro-Kurdish Ozgur Gundem newspaper on Tuesday. | |
| “We would encourage Turkey, as it takes these kind of steps in the security realm, to be mindful of the impact that that kind of action would have on its democratic institutions,” he said. | |
| Additional reporting by Reuters | Additional reporting by Reuters |