A bomb in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir has killed seven people and injured 17 others, the local governor's office said.
Authorities said the bomb was made from powerful explosives and was set off by a cell phone timer on Tuesday evening. It was not immediately known who placed it.
Most of the dead were said to be children. The state-owned Anatolia news agency said five of the killed were children, and two more children were said to be in critical condition at a local hospital.
The blast apparently took place near an elementary school, a Kurdish news agency reported.
Witnesses said the blast threw body parts over a wide area and left pools of blood from the killed and injured.
Diyarbakir is Turkey's largest Kurdish-majority city, and the explosion comes as Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in the region have stepped up their attacks.
It is the third suspected bomb attack of the day.
Also on Tuesday, the Turkish military announced that authorities had defused a powerful remote-controlled bomb planted by Kurdish guerrillas on a busy bridge near the southeastern city of Hatay, and a bomb believed placed by rebels exploded as a freight train carrying coal passed in the eastern province of Bingol, damaging three rail cars.
The blasts came as the United States and Turkey began to take measures to try and counter Kurdish militants who have training camps in northern Iraq and launch frequent raids into Turkey.
{{/usCountry}}The blasts came as the United States and Turkey began to take measures to try and counter Kurdish militants who have training camps in northern Iraq and launch frequent raids into Turkey.
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