Turkey: Ahead of referendum, explosion rocks Diyarbakir

An explosion rocked the city of Diyarbakir in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast on Tuesday, sending a large plume of grey smoke rising over surrounding buildings, a witness said.

Several people were wounded in the blast and ambulances rushed to the scene, security sources said. The cause of the explosion, which comes days ahead of a referendum on broadening President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers, was not immediately clear.

The explosion was in the central, largely residential district of Baglar, where a car bombing by suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants wounded scores of people last November. Diyarbakir is the largest city in Turkey’s southeast, where the PKK has fought an insurgency against the state for more than three decades to press demands for Kurdish autonomy.