One hurt in bomb blast near Turkish PM's office: TV

ANKARA: A bomb exploded Monday near the offices of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, lightly injuring one person, officials and media said.

The device, which was in a small plastic bottle, went off at around 0730 GMT, 20 metres (yards) from the building in the central Kizilay district, one and a half hour before a cabinet meeting to be headed by Erdogan.

"It appears that the explosive material was 150 grammes of light explosives placed inside a plastic bottle," Ankara governor Alaaddin Yuksel was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

The official however declined to comment on the possible motive of the attack that occured on the same street housing both the prime minister's offices and the supreme court of appeals.

"There's an ongoing investigation," he said.

The blast came less than a week after a remote-controlled bomb exploded in Istanbul near Erdogan's ruling party headquarters, which wounded 15 police officers and one civilian.

Police blocked access to the Ankara blast zone -- the entrance to the parking lot of the supreme court of appeals, fearing a second explosion, said private NTV television.

The injured was a court employee, it added. Security guards at Erdogan's office also rushed to the scene.

"It appears some people are attempting to re-escalate tensions in this country," Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay said without elaborating.

Several outlawed armed groups -- Kurds, Islamists and leftist extremists -- have carried out bomb attacks in Istanbul and Ankara in the past.

In September a powerful bomb rocked the centre of Ankara, killing three people on the spot but the death toll rose to five when two of the at least 15 who were injured died in hospital.

A radical Kurdish group, the Freedom Falcons of Kurdistan (TAK), claimed responsibility for the attack.

Turkish officials say TAK is a front used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community.

The PKK has said TAK is a splinter group outside its control.

A bomb blast in May last year injured eight people near a bus stop in Etiler, an upscale district in Istanbul.