2 dead in blasts at pro-Kurdish party rally

Two people were killed Friday when successive explosions hit a rally of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) in southeastern Turkey, two days ahead of legislative elections, a senior minister said.

Over 100 people were also wounded in the blasts in the city of Diyarbakir, said Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker, who frequently represents the government on issues in the region, quoted by the Anatolia news agency.

Initial reports said that the explosions were blamed on an electrical transformer at the rally.

However Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in televised comments that the nature of the damage meant that the blasts had likely been caused by an external factor.

"It suggests there was an outside agent," he said, without giving further details.

Medical sources told AFP in Diyarbakir that 133 people had been taken to two hospitals in the city, 25 of them in a serious condition. Eight people were undergoing emergency surgery the sources added.

Reports said that there was a 10 minute space between the two blasts, and that it was the second which caused the fatal damage.