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Erdogan says explosion in Southern Turkey was car bomb

Friday, 5th July 2019

A bomb blast in a car near Turkey's border with Syria has killed three Syrians who were inside, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on Friday.

The blast occurred inside a car some 750 metres from a local government office in the border town of Reyhanli, in Hatay province, Anadolu Agency said.

Erdogan said that an explosion in a car near the Syrian border was caused by a bomb in the vehicle.

"The findings at the moment indicated that it was more linked to terrorism."

Earlier, Anadolu said two people were also hurt in the explosion and that several ambulances and police vehicles have been sent to the scene. Erdogan did not say how many people were injured in the blast.

In 2013, two car bomb attacks in Reyhanli killed 52 people, including Syrian refugees. Turkey blamed Syria's intelligence agency for the attack.

Turkey was also hit by a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on the Islamic State group and Kurdish militants that killed around 300 people.