The aftermath of the blast in Ankara Reuters

Three people were killed and at least 15 injured when a suspected car bomb exploded near a secondary school in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the interior minister, Idris Naim Sahin, said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but Sahin said it was "highly likely to be a terrorist attack".

He said the bodies of three people were found in a building near a car that exploded in the central Kizilay district.

Sahin said the car was purchased a week ago but it was not yet registered."I felt the blast effect of the explosion some 500 metres away," said eyewitness Ekrem Erkoc. "I saw vehicles on fire and an injured man said people lost their limbs."

The injured were initially treated in the school grounds before medics rushed to the scene and ferried them to hospitals, NTV television said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suspected attack.

A local district mayor, Bulent Tanik, said a witness saw someone throw a burning gas canister on to the vehicles from a nearby building. "The investigation is under way," Tanik said. "If true, that canister might have triggered the blast of a liquefied petroleum gas tank on a vehicle."

One of the vehicles was burnt out and four others were damaged, television images showed.

NTV television reported that 10 people had been taken to hospital. The blast occurred near the school but no pupils were harmed, Tanik said.

The deputy prime minister, Besir Atalay, inspected the scene.

Kurdish, leftwing and Islamist militants have carried out past bomb attacks in Turkey.