Turkish border town rocked by deadly car bomb blast

A three-year-old was reported killed and 15 other people wounded on Friday in a car bomb blast in the southeastern Turkish town of Viransehir.

The explosion took place outside a housing complex for judges and prosecutors in the town in Sanliurfa, near the border with Syria.

A witness told Reuters the blast shattered windows in nearby buildings.

Provincial governor Gungor Azim Tuna was quoted by state-run Anadolu news agency as saying a three-year-old caught in the blast had died.

He said the dead child was the son of a court worker, adding that the wounded were taken to hospital but were not believed to have any serious injuries.

Tuna said the blast was a "terror attack" caused by a parked vehicle that was loaded with explosives and detonated using a remote control. 

The lodgings were badly damaged, the governor added, while Dogan news agency said other buildings and several cars in the area were also damaged.

Bekir Bozdag, Turkey's justice minister, said on Twitter that no attack would weaken Turkey's fight against terrorism.

"Our determined and effective fight against terror will continue," he said.

No group immediately claimed the attack, and Bozdag did not say which organisation the government suspected.

Turkey was hit by a series of attacks in 2016 blamed on Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group (IS), killing hundreds of people.

This year also had a bloody start, with a New Year's attack on an elite Istanbul nightclub that left 39 people dead, most of them foreigners. The attack was claimed by IS.

No one has claimed the Viransehir attack.