Some Turkish television reports said the explosion was at an ammunition depot in the Altinozu district of Hatay, while other media reports said the blast happened in a vehicle carrying scrap metal on the Syrian side of the border.

No further information has been released by Turkish officials yet.

Earlier in July at least six people have been injured in an explosion in Turkey’s Diyarbakir, the main city in the country’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.

In August 2012, a car bomb explosion also left at least nine people dead and 68 more injured in the center of the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Turkish officials usually blame militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for such attacks.

NJF/NJF