Three people were killed and 40 more wounded on Thursday in a car bomb attack in Turkey’s eastern city of Van carried out by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, a local official said.
The attack targeted a police headquarters in the central Ipekyolu district of Van city, Van deputy governor Mehmet Parlak was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency, blaming the “regional terror group”, the official phrase for the PKK.
He said that the three killed were all civilians while two of the 40 wounded were police.
Anadolu said that after the bombing police were sent to the scene, identifying a militant named M.O. suspected of bringing the car bomb in front of the police station.
He had been wounded and was detained and taken to the main police headquarters in Van city for questioning, it said.
The Turkish security forces have been hit by near daily attacks by the PKK since a two-and-a-half year ceasefire collapsed in 2015, leaving hundreds of police and soldiers dead.
But Van, a city with a mixed Kurdish and Turkish population and a popular tourist destination, has generally been spared the worst of attacks like those seen in the nearby city of Diyarbakir.