No less than eight persons have been killed and 70 people injured in a car bomb attack at a police headquarters of Cizre in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast on Friday.

Hospital sources had earlier revealed that nine people were killed and 64 wounded, but an official later said the toll was eight.

The explosion, which occurred at a checkpoint close to the police HQ, was caused by a lorry filled with explosives, a local state-run news agency said.

Large plumes of smoke billowed from the site in Cizre, located in Turkey’s Sirnak province bordering both Syria and Iraq, footage on CNN Turk showed.

ITV news gathered that the eight persons believed to be dead were police officers, while Reuters suggested uncertainty on their identities, saying it was not clear whether the casualties were civilians or police officers

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but the state-run Anadolu news agency blamed it on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy and has been involved in almost daily clashes with security forces since a ceasefire collapsed more than a year ago.

There are fears that the number of fatalities could increase.