Eight people have been killed and dozens wounded in a huge explosion in central Diyarbakir, a city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, the country’s prime minister said.

Binali Yildirim said two police officers and six civilians were killed in Friday morning’s blast.

Yildirim said seven of the wounded are still being treated, adding that the others were discharged from hospitals.

The Diyarbakir governor’s office said that a car bomb went off at about 8am local time (5:00 GMT), adding that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had claimed responsibility.

Al Jazeera’s Kadir Konuksever, reporting from Diyarbakir, said that an annex to the police headquarters had been targeted.

“Four other civilian buildings are heavily damaged,” he said, adding that at least 30 people were wounded in the incident and there were fears the number of casualties could increase.

Media reports said the explosion could be heard from several parts of the city and caused damage to nearby buildings.

The explosion happened hours after police arrested 11 MPs from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party.

The government has stepped up a military campaign in the troubled southeast to eradicate PKK fighters, who have launched almost daily attacks since the rupture of a fragile ceasefire last year.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984, with the aim of carving out an independent state for Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

Credit: aljazeera