A car bomb in Turkey's eastern city of Van has injured at least 48 people, two of them critically, according to reports.

The "large explosion" is understood to have targeted the party's provincial offices in the city, an MP for Turkey's ruling AK party told CNN Turk.

It struck just 200 metres from the Van provincial governor's office, security forces said, tearing off the front of a four-storey building and setting nearby cars and buildings ablaze.

Image: No one is understood to have been killed in the attack

The broadcaster said two police officers are among those injured and that no one is believed to have been killed.

Footage of smoke rising from a building and people running from the scene is being broadcast on local television.


Turkish security forces have blamed the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the blast.

Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast has suffered numerous bombings and attacks since the PKK - which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy - abandoned a ceasefire in 2015.

Image: The blast struck the eastern city of Van

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

It comes a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities, mostly in the southeast, were stripped of office over suspected PKK links.

The move triggered widespread protests, with the pro-Kurdish opposition party accusing authorities of carrying out an illegal "administrative coup".

Four towns in Van province were affected by the removals.