TRAGIC: 50 Dead In Car Bomb Near Ruling Party’s Secretariat

At least 50 people have been injured in an explosion near the ruling AKP party’s headquarters in the city of Van in southeastern Turkey.

Turkish news agency Dogan has quoted local police who said initial reports suggest it was a car bomb.

The blast hit some 200 metres from the Van provincial governor’s office and ripped through the city’s central district setting buildings and cars alight.

It ripped the front from a four-storey building but the business district, which is normally busy at that time on a Monday morning, was unusually quiet as it was the first day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

According to Independent UK, local television footage showed smoke billowing from a building and firefighters battling flames.

There have been no immediate reports of any deaths but two are said to be in critical condition in hospital.

The blast was near to the provincial headquarters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the local AKP party’s deputy leader, Burhan Kayatürk, told CNN Turk that the target of the attack was their regional headquarters but the building was well-secured and had not been badly damaged.

Separatists groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have carried out several terror attacks on the country in recent months after a two-year ceasefire with the government broke down last year.