Breaking News: At least eight police officers dead and 70 injured after 'car bomb attack' rocks checkpoint in southeastern Turkey

At least eight police officers were killed and 70 injured when suspected Kurdish militants attacked a police checkpoint in south-east Turkey with an explosives-laden truck. The attack
struck the checkpoint some 50 yards from a main police station near the town of Cizre, in the mainly Kurdish Sirnak province which borders Syria, the Anadolu Agency reported.

The three-storey police station was destroyed in the powerful explosion.

News channel NTV showed large plumes of smoke billowing from the site, which it said was a police checkpoint. 

At least two of the wounded were in a critical condition, an official said. The Health Ministry said it had sent 12 ambulances and two helicopters to the scene. 

State-run Anadolu Agency blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been involved in almost daily clashes in the region since last July, when a ceasefire between it and the government collapsed.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the rebels took up arms in 1984.

On Thursday Interior Minister Efkan Ala accused the group of attacking a convoy carrying the main opposition party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The government has blamed the PKK for a series of attacks this month in the southeast. The group has claimed responsibility for at least one attack, on a police station.- Daily Mail