Turkey detains 26 people after car bomb, governor says PKK responsible

A vehicle loaded with explosives was remotely detonated in the garden of a housing complex for judges and prosecutors.

Update: 2017-02-18 09:10 GMT
Paramedics carry a victim of a car bomb attack at a hospital in Viransehir, Turkey. (Photo: AP)

Ankara: Turkish authorities detained 26 people over a car bomb attack in the southeastern town of Viransehir, the provincial governor's office said on Saturday.

A vehicle loaded with explosives was remotely detonated late on Friday in the garden of a housing complex for judges and prosecutors, killing a child and wounding 17 people.

A security guard at the housing complex was also killed in the attack, a statement from Sanliurfa governor's office said on Saturday.

"A total of 26 people including the owner of the vehicle thought to have been brought from Derik district in Mardin province have been detained," the statement said.

There was no claim of responsibility. Sanliurfa governor Gungor Azim Tuna was quoted as saying by state-run Anadolu agency that the attack was carried out by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, launched an armed separatist insurgency in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

A ceasefire between the PKK and the state broke down in July 2015 and thousands have been killed in conflict since then.

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