Two police officers were killed and 23 people wounded in a car bomb attack on police headquarters in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the provincial governor and police sources said, in one of two attacks on security forces on Sunday.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Turkey has suffered attacks recently both from Kurdish militants and the self-styled Islamic State terrorists, raising uncertainty at home and among NATO allies about spillover of conflict from neighboring Syria, Reuters reported.
A bomb-laden vehicle was detonated outside the gates of police headquarters on a street housing several other provincial government buildings whose windows were shattered.
Footage from broadcaster CNN Turk showed forensics experts collecting pieces of the wrecked vehicle as well as rubble strewn by the blast felt across the city.
Police cordoned off the scene and police carrying rifles patrolled the area. Gunfire was heard at the time of the explosion and a second car was reported to have been driven away from the scene.
Nineteen police officers and four civilians were wounded in the attack, a statement from Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya’s office said. One police officer died at the scene and a second in hospital, a security source said.
The province of Gaziantep, bordering IS-held Syrian territory, is home to a large Syrian refugee population and there have been several police raids on suspected IS militants there over the past months.
A wave of suicide bombings this year, including two in its largest city Istanbul, have been blamed on IS, and two in the capital Ankara were claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
