Bombings In Turkey Kill At Least 10, Wound More Than 200

By Camila Domonoske

Published August 18, 2016 at 7:23 AM EDT

Turkish authorities search outside a damaged building after an explosion in Elazig, eastern Turkey, on Thursday. Two car bombings targeted police stations in Turkey, killing a number of people and wounding hundreds, officials said.

A series of bombings in eastern Turkey left at least 10 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

Two car bombings targeted law enforcement; a third attack struck a military vehicle carrying soldiers, The Associated Press reports.

The first car bomb hit near a police station in the city of Van, near the border with Iran. It left at least two officers and one civilian dead and at least 70 people — mostly civilians — wounded, the AP reports.

State-run media reports one suspect is in custody, NPR's Peter Kenyon reports. He says officials are suggesting Kurdish militants were behind the attack.

"In the past, fighters from the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, have targeted police and military facilities with their attacks. On Monday, a car bomb detonated near a traffic police station outside the southeast city of Diyarbakir, killing eight," he says. "The PKK resumed its long-running conflict against the Turkish military in July 2015, after more than two years of reconciliation talks broke down."

A second car bombing, much larger, hit hours later in the city of Elazig, at another police station, Peter says.

At least three officers were killed and more than 146 people injured, including more than a dozen reported to be in serious condition, the AP reports:

"Mahmut Varol, the deputy mayor for Elazig, told Haber Turk television that the explosion occurred on the grounds of the police headquarters and caused cars parked nearby to catch fire.

"Video footage showed a large plume of smoke rising from the area. Cars were overturned and the windows of the four-story building and its wings were blown out."

Media coverage of the Elazig attack has been banned in Turkey. The Turkish government regularly imposes media blackouts after acts of terrorism.

Then there was a third blast: "a roadside bomb that detonated as an armored military vehicle was passing in eastern Bitlis province," Peter says.

At least four soldiers were killed and seven wounded in that attack, the AP says.