Bombs being handled by suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants accidentally go off in southeastern Turkey, killing four of the militants and wounding 17 civilians.
The blast occurred at about 10:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) in the Sarikamis district, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the city of Diyarbakir. The Turkish Interior Ministry said it happened as the militants were loading the bombs onto a truck.
Four of the wounded are in critical condition, security sources said.
Major Turkish cities have witnessed bombing attacks since last July when the country launched a military campaign against the separatist militants in the country’s southeastern border areas.
The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the group’s positions in northern Iraq.
Earlier in the day, a car bomb attack near a military facility in an Istanbul suburb wounded eight people. A car bombing against local security forces killed three people in Diyarbakir on Tuesday.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a Kurdish militant group with PKK ties, has also claimed two car bombings that killed a total of 66 people in the capital, Ankara, earlier this year.
The PKK is fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds in the southeast.
It has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives.