Blast levels army residential building in Turkey

Diyarbakir (Turkey), Dec 11: A large explosion today largely destroyed a residential building belonging to the army in Diyarbakir, the largest city in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, witnesses said.

Rescue workers told Reuters the blast had been caused by a central heating problem. There was no immediate word on casualties, but a Reuters reporter said he had seen two people rescued from the rubble.

Turkish television showed the large multi-storey building had largely collapsed like a house of cards.

Dozens of people were seen combing through the rubble.

The armed forces headquarters in Ankara declined to comment.

Southeast Turkey has long been racked by separatist violence, though this has fallen off sharply since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called a unilateral ceasefire in October.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Reuters