Turkish car bomb attack kills one, injures nine

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car in Turkey's southern Mersin province on Tuesday, killing himself and injuring nine police officers, the local governor said.

Television pictures showed firemen extinguishing the smoking remains of the vehicle on a motorway, some 10 km from the major port city of Mersin on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

The assailant detonated the bomb after police officers halted his vehicle near a traffic police checkpoint, Mersin Governor Huseyin Aksoy told state-run Anatolian news agency.

"We are working on the probability that it was a suicide bomber. Investigations on the matter are continuing," he said.

The white car destroyed in the blast had a number plate from the southeastern city of Sanliurfa and was heading towards Mersin city, the governor said.

He said one of the police officers was badly hurt.

Police in the city were not available for comment.

The identity of the assailant was not known. Islamist militants, Kurdish and leftist guerrillas have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.