Car Bomb Explosion In Turkey Many Died

Turkey has been plagued by a series of deadly bomb attacks in the past 18 months, carried out by Kurdish militants or Islamic State group extremists.  A car bomb attack in Diyarbakir, in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, has killed eight people and injured about 100 more.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said those killed in the blast near a police station were two police officers, a technician and five other civilians.

Of those injured, seven remained in hospital, he said.

The explosion shattered the windows of nearby buildings and could be heard from several parts of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the region.

Several ambulances were sent to the scene.

The Diyarbakir governor's office said the attack was believed to have been carried out by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Mr Yildirim said one of the assailants was "caught dead" but did not provide details.

The attack happened just hours after police arrested the two co-leaders of the country's main pro-Kurdish party and nine other MPs.

Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were detained in their respective homes as part of a terror investigation, reports said.

Their detention was part of a large-scale operation against the HDP, which is the third-largest party in the Turkish parliament with 59 seats.

NTV television said both were accused of spreading propaganda for the PKK, and Demirtas of provoking violence in deadly protests in October 2014.

The country remains under a state of emergency imposed in the wake of failed coup in July, which critics say has gone well beyond targeting the actual coup plotters.

The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said she was "extremely worried" at the arrest of Kurdish opposition lawmakers, while German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier summoned the charge d'affaires in the Turkish embassy.

Thirteen staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, including the editor-in-chief, were detained on Monday, further heightening strains in Turkish society. 

Tensions have soared in the Kurdish-dominated southeast since a fragile ceasefire declared by the PKK collapsed in 2015.