Turkish bomb blast kills seven

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - A bomb blast killed seven people when it ripped through a street in the southeast Turkish city of Diyarbakir today.

They said the explosion occurred on a street near a park in the city in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country. Fourteen people were injured in the blast.

It was the latest in a string of bomb attacks in Turkish tourist resorts and other cities in recent weeks which have killed a total of 12 people and wounded dozens.

The NTV news channel said five children were among the dead in the latest attack.

A hospital made an appeal for blood donations after the injured were brought in to be treated. Some of the casualties were in a serious condition and were being operated on, officials at the hospital said.

Television pictures showed a body at the scene being covered by a sheet.

The explosion happened next to a wall by the Kosuyolu Park in the Baglar district of the city. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), the militant group which claimed the previous attacks in late August, has threatened to turn Turkey into "hell".

It bombed a busy shopping area in the coastal resort of Antalya, killing three people and wounding dozens. That blast followed four bombs in the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris and in Istanbul that wounded 27 people.

TAK and the larger outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants oppose Ankara's policies on the Kurdish region.

The PKK took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating a homeland in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. More than 30,000 people have since been killed in the separatist conflict.

PKK guerrillas mainly attack soldiers in the mountains of southeast Turkey from their bases in northern Iraq.

Leftist and Islamist groups have also carried out bomb attacks in the past.

- REUTERS