Man dies in Turkey car explosion

An explosion in a car in southern Turkey tonight killed one person and injured one other, the Anatolia news agency reported, quoting a local official.

The blast in the southern city of Mersin occurred as the car was in motion, said local governor Atilla Osmancelebioglu.

The car’s driver lost control and hit another car, Osmancelebioglu said. The dead man and the injured passenger were inside the car that exploded.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation, the governor added.

Autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels have stepped up bomb attacks in recent months and leftist and radical Islamic groups are also active in the country.

Last week, a bomb planted in a bin in an Istanbul suburb killed a woman and her daughter. Police believe Kurdish rebels planted the bomb. Two suspected Kurdish rebels were killed in Istanbul this week while preparing a bomb.

Earlier this month, two explosions in bins in the popular resort city of Antalya left nine people slightly injured. Police said those blasts could have been caused by bombs or by exploding aerosol cans.

The bloodiest attack was in mid-July, when a bomb on a minibus in the Aegean resort town of Kusadasi killed five people, including a British woman and an Irish teenager.