Greg Toppo

USATODAY

A large car bomb explosion killed at least 37 people and wounded scores more in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday, the governor’s office said.

The bomb exploded close to bus stops near a park at Kizilay, Ankara's main square, NTV television reported. The news channel said the explosion occurred as a car slammed into a bus.

Mehmet Muezzinoglu, Turkey’s health minister, said 125 people were wounded, 19 of them seriously. He said 30 of the victims died at the scene, while another perished at hospitals. Two of the dead were believed to be bombers, The Associated Press reported.

The BBC reported that several vehicles at the scene were reduced to burnt-out wrecks, including at least one bus.

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No group immediately claimed credit for the attack, but a senior government official told the AP police suspected that Kurdish militants carried out the attack. Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group have carried out bombings in the city recently.

Dogan Asik, 28, said he was on a bus when the explosion occurred.

“We were thrown further back into the bus from the force of the explosion,” said Asik, who sustained injuries to his face and arm.

Police sealed off the area and pushed onlookers back, the AP reported, warning there could be a second bomb. Forensic teams were examining the scene.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was convening an emergency security meeting and President Recep Erdogan, who has been in Istanbul, was briefed on the attack by the interior minister, the newspaper Hurriyet reported. Erdogan was expected to return to Ankara.

Turkey's state-run news agency reported that Davutoglu had postponed a visit to Jordan.

The explosion came just three weeks after a suicide car bombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people. A Kurdish militant offshoot of the outlawed Kurdish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, claimed responsibility for that attack.

But on Sunday, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, issued a statement saying it shares “the huge pain felt along with our citizens.”

In a statement, White House National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price on Sunday said the U.S. condemns the attack "in the strongest terms," adding, "This horrific act is only the most recent of many terrorist attacks perpetrated against the Turkish people. The United States stands together with Turkey, a NATO ally and valued partner, as we confront the scourge of terrorism."

Sunday’s attack came two days after the U.S. Embassy issued a security warning about a potential plot to attack Turkish government buildings and housing in one Ankara neighborhood and asked citizens to avoid those areas.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Turkey in renewed fighting following the collapse of the peace process between the government and the PKK in July. Authorities on Sunday had declared curfews in two towns in the mainly Kurdish southeast region in anticipation of large-scale military operations against PKK-linked militants.

Turkey also has been struck by several bombings in the last year that were blamed on the Islamic State as the government joined efforts led by the U.S. to fight the extremist group in Syria. The deadliest came in October when a peace rally outside Ankara’s main train station killed 102 people.

Contributing: The Associated Press