A car bomb detonated by remote control killed three people, not six as reported earlier, and injured 24 others in an attack that apparently targeted the convoy of the governor of an eastern Turkish province, officials said.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office on Friday gave no reason for the revision of the earlier toll, which had stood at six killed.
Governor Hikmet Tan was not injured in the blast but his car was heavily damaged.
”It seems that my car was the target. Right now I’m in good shape,” Tan told private NTV television. He said five people were killed and 24 injured in the blast, but gave no details.
NTV reported that two of the dead were bystanders.
National police spokesperson Ramazan Er said police suspect that Kurdish rebels were behind the attack in the eastern province of Van. The rebels announced last month that they were ending a unilateral truce.
According to a preliminary investigation, the blast was caused by a remote-controlled bomb placed in a car, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said.
Television footage showed a car that was reduced to a charred and smouldering chunk of metal. Blood could be seen on the street and windows of a nearby building were shattered. The blast burst a pipe on the street, which was flooded by water.
Police found another bomb in the area and defused it, Er said.
Kurdish rebels fought a 15-year war for autonomy before declaring a ceasefire in 1999.
About 37 000 people were killed before the rebels suspended hostilities following the capture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
Former Kurdish lawmakers Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, who were recently released from prison, condemned the attack.
”We learned with sadness that there was a bomb attack,” the four said in a statement. ”We condemn this attack, no matter who did it.”
Zana and her three colleagues were released from prison after serving 10 years following convictions on charges of supporting Kurdish separatism and collaborating with outlawed Kurdish rebels. — Sapa-AP