Soldiers Killed in Turkish Train Bomb

02/07/2005| IslamWeb

Five people have been killed and eight injured after a bomb allegedly planted by Kurdish guerrillas exploded under a train in Turkey.

The dead were all soldiers and three of the injured were also troops travelling in the postal train in Bingol province this morning.

According to army officials, a second train travelling to the scene to help was fired on.

The blast toppled carriages and work was underway to rescue people trapped inside.

It is thought rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party PKK laid C-4 plastic explosives on the tracks and triggered them by remote control.

It happened between the eastern towns of Elazig and Tatvan.

Some 30,000 people have been killed in the PKK's armed campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey since they took up arms in 1984.

The violence tailed off after leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured and jailed in 1999 but there was a resurgence when the group called off a unilateral ceasefire last year.

PHOTO CAPTION

People walk near a derailed passenger train after a bomb explosion, killed at least five people and injured eight others on a passenger train on its way from Bingol to Tatvan, eastern Turkey. (AFP)