Suspected separatists ambush convoy of Turkish prime minister in northern city of Kastamonu, killing a policeman
Suspected separatist gunmen ambushed a Turkish police escort, killing one officer and wounding two, in northern Turkey, near where prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held an election rally on Wednesday.
Erdogan had left by helicopter from Kastamonu by the time of the attack, which targeted a police vehicle providing an escort for an AK party campaign bus.
Campaigning has begun for a parliamentary election on 12 June that is expected to result in Erdogan winning a third consecutive term.
Television pictures showed Erdogan subsequently arriving at another election rally in the northern province of Amasya, where he was greeted by thousands of AK supporters waving party flags.
He blamed separatist militants for the attack, casting suspicion on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
"Those dark minds, these terrorists, these separatists are only able to do this, those who understand there is nothing they can do through the ballot box," Erdogan said.
"Our people will never allow these terrorists, these bandits to divide them," he said, addressing the rally in full view but flanked by two bodyguards.
The attack came after thousands of Kurds gathered in the main south-eastern city of Diyarbakir on Wednesday for a funeral of PKK guerrillas killed in a clash with security forces in the province of Tunceli last week.
The PKK ended a six-month ceasefire in February, and there have been fears of rising violence ahead of the election.
Media reports a month ago said the interior ministry and police had warned against potential attacks by the PKK in the Black Sea region, and in Kastamonu in particular.
The attack happened on a country road winding through thickly forested hillsides south of Kastamonu.
According to an NTV news channel report, a grenade was thrown at the police vehicle and gunmen opened fire as it burst into flames. One report quoted a senior local official as saying that no explosive was thrown.
PKK militants attacked a police vehicle in the Black Sea province of Sinop last month, injuring three police officers. Kastamonu province, on the Black Sea, had not previously been known as a scene of guerrilla violence.
However, Kurdish, leftist and Islamist militants have often carried out gun and bomb attacks across Turkey in the past. More than 40,000 people have been killed in a separatist conflict in south-eastern Turkey since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984.
The AK party took power in 2002, and while it has overseen a period of unprecedented prosperity, critics fear that it harbours a secret agenda to roll back the republic's secular constitution.
Erdogan denies any such intention, although he does plan to introduce a new constitution if elected in order to make a clean break with a past era of military rule.
Prosecutors say the AK government has been targeted by a series of coup plots involving violent attacks by suspected militant secularists in recent years. Hundreds of people are on trial on conspiracy charges.