Eight dead in explosion at Turkish apartment block (Roundup)

Dec 11, 2006, 17:42 GMT

Ankara - Eight people were feared dead after an apartment block was destroyed by an explosion Monday in the south-east Turkish city of Diyarbakir.

The bodies of a woman and four children were removed from the rubble of the five-storey building, Turkish media reported.

Rescue working teams from the army, firefighters and civilian protection reported they were still searching for three missing persons, who were believed to be buried under the rubble.

Authorities said the explosion appeared to have been caused by a boiler which exploded in the cellar of the building. A plumber, who carried out maintenance work on the boiler a day earlier, was reportedly arrested, but this was not officially confirmed.

Around 40 military personnel and their families lived in the apartment block. The blast occurred at around 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), not long after a number of people from the block had caught a service bus to work or school.

Shortly after the explosion, eight residents - two men, six women and children - were rescued from the rubble and taken to hospital.

An estimated 40 people resided in the building. It remained unclear how many people were in the apartment block at the time of the blast.

Following a wave of attacks by Kurdish extremists in the summer, Turkish media had not ruled out the possibility of an act of sabotage.