Turkey hunts for bombing suspects

Turkish police have raided houses in Diyarbakir, in the country's mainly Kurdish south-east, a day after a bomb blast killed 11 people in the city.

Checkpoints have also been set up on roads leading out of the city as police continue to search for suspects.

No-one has so far claimed responsibility for the blast in a park which killed at least five children.

It happened as a US envoy arrived in Turkey for talks on curbing a wave of bombs blamed on Kurdish separatists.

Bomb attacks in tourist resorts and other cities in recent weeks have also killed a total of 12 people and wounded dozens.

One separatist militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (Tac), has said it carried out those attacks.

It also warned on its website last week that it would turn "Turkey into hell".

Shattered

The raids in Diyarbakir were carried out early on Wednesday, but it remains unclear if any arrests were made.

The blast happened at about 2100 local time (1800 GMT) on Tuesday at the park in the poor Baglar area of the city largely populated by Kurdish migrants.

Windows in nearby buildings were shattered and the dead and injured lay in the streets before emergency services reached the scene.

The bomb may have been detonated using a mobile phone timer, police said.

But they said they believed the device was set off by mistake during transportation and might have been intended for something else.

Officials put the death toll at seven immediately after the explosion but the number rose to 11 overnight after four more victims died in hospital.

At least 13 people were injured in the explosion.

"Our grief is great for the victims of this terror, especially as our children have been the victims," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

Upsurge in violence

Diyarbakir, the central city of Turkey's south-east, is a heartland of Kurdish separatist militancy.

The district mayor is from the Kurdish DTP political party which recently called on the outlawed Kurdish separatist group the PKK to announce a ceasefire following an upsurge in violence in recent weeks.

The Tac group, which is said to be linked to the PKK, called on foreign tourists not to travel to the country as it claimed responsibility for recent attacks.

Retired US air force General Joseph Ralston will meet Turkish officials in Ankara on Wednesday for talks on the Kurdish issue.