DIYARBAKIR: An explosion in a police compound in Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir wounded several people and sent a large plume of grey smoke rising over surrounding buildings on Tuesday, but the cause of the blast was not immediately clear.
A police source said the explosion appeared to have taken place in a vehicle repair section of the police compound, causing part of the roof to collapse and wounding at least four people. The Dogan news agency said one was in a critical condition.
The blast comes ahead of a hotly contested referendum on Sunday on broadening President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers, a constitutional change opposed by many in the country’s predominantly Kurdish south-east.
The explosion was in the central, largely residential district of Baglar, where a car bombing by suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants wounded scores of people last November.
Diyarbakir is the largest city in Turkey’s south-east, where the PKK has fought an insurgency against the state for more than three decades to press demands for Kurdish autonomy. Violence has flared since a ceasefire collapsed in July 2015.