Istanbul - Turkish police detained 26
people over a car bomb attack in the south-eastern town of
Viransehir, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu 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 an 11-year-old boy and a security guard.
Seventeen people were injured.
"The vehicle had been detonated just as a security guard who
saw it being parked was about to intervene with a gun, killing
him," Soylu told reporters in Viransehir, adding that the blast
caused damage to 14 buildings nearby.
Eleven people were still being treated in hospital, Soylu
said, including two in intensive care.
"As of last night a total of 26 people had been detained and
our security forces are conducting the necessary work," he
added. A previous statement from the Sanliurfa provincial
governor's office said the owner of the vehicle used in the
attack was among those being held.
Images from the scene showed dozens of cars parked inside
the housing complex were severely damaged while the buildings'
windows and balconies were almost entirely shattered. Turkish
flags were hung on the side of the buildings.
There has been no claim of responsibility. Sanliurfa
governor Gungor Azim Tuna was quoted as saying by the state-run
Anadolu agency that the attack was carried out by Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) militants.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation 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.