One civilian was killed and three Turkish police wounded today when suspected Kurdish militants opened fire on a cafe in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, security sources said.
A small group of police were in a cafe in the centre of Diyarbakir specialising in tripe soup, a popular breakfast staple, when suspected Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants opened fire.
Three police were wounded and a young male civilian, named as Seyhmus Sanir, 22, who was working as a waiter in the cafe was killed, the security sources told AFP.
The police, one of whom was seriously wounded, are being treated in hospital.
An AFP photographer who arrived on the scene shortly afterwards reported that staff and customers raised their hands to their heads in despair after the shooting.
One police officer who was wounded lay prostrate on the ground. Police reinforcements who arrived in flak jackets brandished AK-47s in case of a follow-up attack.
Diyarbakir, the biggest city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country, has seen a spate of deadly attacks in the last weeks aimed at the Turkish security forces.
Since late July, Ankara has used air power and ground forces to try to cripple the PKK in its strongholds in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq.
But the PKK, outlawed as a terror organisation by Turkey and its western allies, has hit back, killing dozens of Turkish police and soldiers in almost daily assaults.
