3 dead in suicide attack on Turkish ruling party offices

A suicide bomber blew herself up in front of the local offices of the ruling Justice and Development Party in the eastern Turkish city of Bingol Saturday, killing two other people and wounding 20 more, a local official reported.

Bingol Governor Mustafa Hakan Guvencer said the female bomber killed a woman and a man, as well as herself, the semi-official Anatolian Agency reported. She also wounded 20 other people, "one of whom is in grave condition" in hospital, Guvencer told Anatolian.

The bomber detonated her explosives in Youth Street in a busy shopping area of the eastern Anatolia city, about 250 kilometres west of the epicentre of the earthquake that killed 582 people October 23, DPA reported.

Pictures broadcast on Turkish broadcaster NTV showed heavy damage to a pharmacy and toy shop. The building bore a sign reading "provincial offices of the AK Party" on the upper floors.

The governor said the explosion was being investigated. Immediate suspicion fell on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been waging an insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people since 1984.

Interior Minister Naim Shahin issued a statement saying there had been a bombing, causing one death and 10 injuries, and that the wounded had been taken to hospital. However, broadcasters continued to report higher tolls of dead and injured.


/Trend/