Turkey: Eight police officers wounded in roadside car bomb attack

Eight police officers were injured after a car bomb attack in the Diyarbakir province of southeast Turkey, officials confirmed on Friday.

A bomb was detonated inside a parked roadside vehicle as a riot police minibus was passing by the highway connecting the Diyarbakir and Mardin provinces, during the early morning hours of Friday. 

Nine people were injured in total, eight of whom were police officers, as the explosion caused the minibus to overturn, CNN Turk reported.

Security forces and medical teams were immediately sent to the region, and a large-scale investigation launched. 

"There was an explosion in a parked vehicle at 05:10 as a police vehicle was going to work in Diyarbakir," tweeted Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. 

“As a precaution, our police friends were taken to the hospital and outpatient examinations were made. 

“Two people who were considered to be the perpetrators of the incident were taken into custody.” 

Wounded officers discharged

Diyarbakir Governor Ali Ihsan Su, who visited the hospital, said that seven of the nine wounded had been discharged. 

He added that the other two “do not have any life-threatening injuries” and would shortly be discharged too. 

Su said that there was information which suggested “the suspects are linked to terrorism”. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. 

The blast occurred near a livestock market 10km south of Diyarbakir’s city centre. 

Last month, a bomb attack killed six people and wounded dozens of others in Istanbul’s central shopping district of Taksim. 

Nearly 50 people were arrested over the attack, including Ahlam Albashir, a Syrian national who police say confessed to being trained by the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.