ANKARA (Sputnik) – A number of those wounded have been taken to hospitals, according to the Anadolu news service, which claimed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind the bombing. Two helicopters and 12 ambulance cars were sent to the scene.
#Cizre'de meydana gelen patlamadaki ilk görüntüler pic.twitter.com/9gp3o8cqod
— Rehber Tv Haber (@RehberTvHaber) 26 августа 2016 г.
The NTV broadcaster said the security directorate building has been totaled in the aftermath, depicting images of the building's carcass. Local correspondents described seeing a "large pit" at the site of the explosion.
#Report
— Julian Röpcke (@JulianRoepcke) 26 августа 2016 г.
"Many dead and wounded" after suspected PKK car bombing on police HQ in Tur-Syr border town #Cizre.#Turkey pic.twitter.com/wptymYNhvn
Security sources told other outlets the purported car bomb explosion claimed many lives. According to Anadolu, 11 people were killed and 78 were wounded.
“The explosion in Cizre wounded more than 70 people, four in critical condition. There are dead, but their numbers will be announced later. I hope the death toll will not rise,” Akdag said at a briefing.
Cizre is located on the border with Syria and Iraq, and has a largely Kurdish population. The place has been hit by numerous terrorist attacks. Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 as fighting between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Kurdish pro-independence organization considered to be terrorist by Ankara, and the Turkish army resumed. Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews in Kurdish-populated towns, preventing civilians from fleeing the regions where the military operations are taking place.
