Kurdish HPD rally blast confirmed as bomb

Turkish security forces say a gas canister wrapped with ball bearings caused at least one of two deadly blasts at a Kurdish election rally on Friday.

Officials say two people were killed and at least 100 injured.

The crowd soon blamed Turkey’s President for the attack; chanting that he is a killer.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described the blasts as a “provocation” designed to undermine peace.

“The fact that this incident came two days before Sunday’s polls casts a shadow over the election, but we will hold the election one way or the other.

“We are making every effort to carry out the election under best conditions by stepping up the security measures.”

The attack took place in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

Pieces of shrapnel tore through a rally where thousands had gathered in support of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)

It caused the HPD leader Selahattin Demirtaş to cancel his speech, but at a later rally by the party’s h