Six people hurt in Istanbul blast - TV

ISTANBUL, June 10 (Reuters) - At least six people were wounded today in an explosion outside a store in Istanbul, Turkey's CNN Turk private television said.

The blast occurred in the Bakirkoy district of Turkey's largest city, the state Anatolian news agency said.

Police were not immediately available to comment on what may have caused the blast.

CNN Turk showed ambulances rushing to the scene and taking away some of the injured. It also showed passers-by rushing away from the area of the explosion.

Explosions are not uncommon in Turkey, where radical groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to militant Islamists and far-leftists are all active.

Tensions are running especially high at present amid increased clashes between Turkish troops and militants of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

The clashes have fuelled talk of a possible major Turkish army incursion into northern Iraq to hit PKK bases there.

Turkish authorities have warned of possible PKK attacks on civilian and security targets in cities and towns, especially in the run-up to national elections next month.

Last month, eight people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a shopping mall in the capital Ankara. Authorities blamed that attack on the PKK, though the group denied involvement.

Last week, seven paramilitary policemen were killed when PKK rebels attacked their base in the eastern province on Tunceli.

Three soldiers, including two officers, were killed yesterday when rebels remotely detonated a landmine in Sirnak province close to the Iraqi border.

Each incident has added to pressure on the government, which faces a strong nationalist challenge in the July 22 election, to get tougher with the PKK.

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

REUTERS SLD RN1914