Death toll in Turkey car bomb attack rises to 8

ANKARA - The death toll has risen to eight on Tuesday after a car bomb attack occurred in southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, Dogan News Agency reported.

The attack was launched on Monday by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants against a police station, said the report.

Five police officers and three civilians were killed in the attack when the PKK militants detonated a bomb-laden truck outside the Murat Ucar Regional Traffic Inspection Station in the Sukurlu village of Diyarbakir.

A cleaning worker heavily wounded in the attack passed away at a military hospital on Tuesday.

The ongoing investigation showed the truck was from the southeastern province of Mardin and was loaded with over 10 tons of explosives.

Diyarbakir police were on high alert as Aug 15 marked the 32nd anniversary of the PKK's first armed attack in Siirt's Eruh district in 1984.

Over 500 members of Turkish security forces and thousands of PKK members have been killed in confrontations inside Turkey and northern Iraq since July 2015.

More than 40,000 people have lost their lives in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the group started anti-government attacks.

The PKK was listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.