Police station attacks kill six and injure 219 In Turkey

 

Two big car bombs have hit police stations in separate cities in Turkey, killing six people and wounding at least 219 others.

The first attack targeted a police station in the eastern city of Van, killing one police officer and two civilians. Some 73 people were hurt.

Hours later, a police station in Elazig was hit, killing at least three police officers and wounding 146 people.

Turkish officials blamed the Kurdish militant group, the PKK.

The PKK has carried a series of bombings targeting the police in the largely Kurdish south-east since a ceasefire with the government broke down last year.

 

Television footage showed plumes of smoke rising above the destroyed police building in Elazig.
The force of the blast blew out nearby cars, uprooted trees and left a large crater outside the building.

At least eight people were killed in two attacks on police vehicles in nearby Diyarbakir and Kiziltepe last week.

Since last month's failed coup in Turkey, there has been much talk of national unity.

But this has not included the pro-Kurdish political party which the Turkish authorities say supports the PKK, reports the BBC's Turkey correspondent Mark Lowen. The pro-Kurdish HDP denies any link to the militants.