ANKARA (Reuters) - Twelve people, including eleven teenagers, were killed when a fire swept through a girls dormitory in the southern Turkish province of Adana on Tuesday, officials said.

The fire, which broke out in a dormitory housing middle and high school students, may have been caused by an electrical fault, Omer Celik, a senior government official who represents the province in parliament, told broadcaster CNN Turk.

At least twenty-two other girls were injured, Celik said. Also among the dead was a woman who worked at the dormitory.

The dormitory housed impoverished girls whose families coming from nearby villages where there are no schools, Elif Dogan Turkmen, an opposition parliamentarian, told CNN Turk.

Television footage showed a blaze rising from the rooftop of a multi-storey building and teams of firefighters working to put it out. </s> Twelve people were killed and several others were wounded after a fire broke out in a girls dormitory in southern province of Adana on Tuesday.

A worker and 11 middle and high school students aged 10-16 were killed in the fire, the head of the fire brigade department in Adana said.

On Wednesday, six people, including the school dormitory manager, were detained over the deadly fire.

Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtaş later confirmed the toll and added that 22 others were saved and sent to hospital. Demirtaş said the injured students were affected by the smoke and some of them were hurt by broken glass and jumping from upper floors while they were fleeing the building.

He stated that the fire broke out after an electrical meter in the building caught fire, but the investigation was still underway.

The governor added that the three-storey building had been evacuated as fire crews battled with blazes at the school girls' dormitory.



President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan telephoned Demirtaş early Wednesday and received an update on the situation, according to presidential sources.

Erdoğan said he was deeply sorry for the fire and wished mercy on those who lost their lives while hoping for a quick recovery for the wounded.



The fire may have been caused by an electrical fault, Ömer Çelik, a senior government official who represents Adana province in parliament, told broadcaster CNN Türk.

The ministry of education said that the dorm's capacity was about 54 people but only 34 students had been staying in the dorms.



Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, National Education Minister Ismet Yılmaz and Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya headed to Adana late on Tuesday, according to sources with the prime ministry.

The ministers arrived in the scene early on Wednesday and recevied infromation from local officials. </s> ISTANBUL — A Turkish governor and state-run media say a fire at a student dormitory for girls in the southern town of Aladag has killed 12 people and wounded 22 others.

Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtas was quoted by Turkey's state-run news agency on Tuesday night as giving the death toll and saying the wounded were taken to a hospital. The Anadolu Agency also reported that the fire took place in a middle school dormitory for girls.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

Turkish television showed flames rising from a multiple-story building in the town and firefighters deployed at the scene. </s> 12 killed, 24 wounded in dormitory fire in Turkey’s Adana

ADANA

A total of 12 people, mostly children, were killed and another 24 were wounded late on Nov. 29 when a fire broke out at a private girls’ dormitory in the Aladağ district of the southern province of Adana.The fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. and instantly surrounded the building, which belongs to the Tahsil Çağındaki Talebelere Yardım Derneği (Aid Association to Education-age Students).Firefighters were only managed to extinguish the fire three hours later.The bodies of 10 students, including one child and educator identified as Fatma Canatan, were pulled from the three-story building, while another 24 students who were exposed to smoke and jumped from the windows to escape were taken to hospital.The lifeless bodies of eight students were found in the attic of the building, while the bodies of other three students and Canatan were found on the second floor.Sare Betül Genç, the four-year-old daughter of the dormitory manager, was also killed in the fire.Seven of those killed were identified following DNA tests, while the autopsy proceedings to identify the other five are ongoing.Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtaş had earlier announced that a total of 34 students were staying at the private secondary school dormitory.The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, though Adana Firefighter Unit Department Head Fatih Durukan said initial examinations indicated that it might have been caused by a loose electric contact.Aladağ Mayor Mustafa Alpgedik said the fire broke out on the ground floor before rising to the third floor, which was mostly wooden. The roof of the building completely collapsed after the fire spread to the third floor.The Kozan Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has announced that arrest warrants had been issued for a total of 14 people, including dormitory personnel and managers of the dormitory association, as a part of the investigation into the incident. Three chief public prosecutors were assigned to investigate the fire, it said.Police in Adana detained six people, including dormitory manager Cumali Genç, educators and dormitory personnel as part of the investigation.Meanwhile, Turkey’s media watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), announced a gag order on reporting the fire, following a decision of the Aladağ criminal court of peace, until the investigation is complete.Earlier on Nov. 29, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Governor Demirtaş after the fire to get an update on the situation, according to presidential sources.Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım was also briefed by the governor and related ministers who arrived at the scene.Demirtaş also briefed Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman on the incident, as the latter expressed his condolences in a phone conversation.The U.S. Embassy in Ankara extended its condolences to the relatives of the victims in the aftermath of the tragedy.Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz, Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya and Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) head Mehmet Görmez headed to the district to make examinations at the scene and visit the wounded in hospitals.Mehmet Karataş, the father of one of victims Cennet Karataş, said it was his daughter’s first year at the dormitory, adding that he had no choice other than to send his daughter to the dormitory because it was the only girls’ dormitory in the district.Another local in the district told the Doğan News Agency that the authorities had demolished a previous dormitory in the district and settled the children there in a different private girls’ dormitory.Opposition figures have also condemned lax safety monitoring that led to the deadly fire.Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the government for not implementing necessary safety measures in dormitories, amid claims of locked fire escape doors at the dormitory.“When you look at the dormitory, you realize that there was a fire escape but all of our children who died there were just in front of that door. They couldn’t open it because it was locked,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.“This is despite the fact there are possible technological solutions. There are doors that cannot be opened from outside but can be opened from inside. Why are they not using those doors? Why were precautions not taken? Why was that approved?” he added.Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak claimed on Nov. 30 that there was in fact no lock on the fire escape door, quoting the prosecutor’s initial examinations.Kaynak also said the dormitory had been authorized by the Education Ministry and inspected twice a year, with the last inspection conducted in June.Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya said a “meticulous” investigation was underway to reveal whether the door of the fire escape was locked, vowing that anyone found to have been negligent in the incident would be punished.Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli said in a written statement that the cause of the fire should be immediately revealed, urging the government to find and punish those responsible for the fire by failing to guarantee the dormitory’s safety.Bahçeli recalled that it was the government’s principal duty to claim responsibility and protect future generations.Dormitory fires are not uncommon in Turkey. Back in 2008, an explosion triggered by a gas leak in a religious preparatory school in the Central Anatolian province of Konya claimed the lives of 18 girls and wounded another 29. Charges were brought against the dormitory manager as well as other officials but the case is still ongoing.Six students were killed in a fire in a Qoran school in Diyarbakır on Nov 30, 2015. </s> ISTANBUL- A fire at a middle school dormitory for girls in southern Turkey left 12 people dead and 22 injured Tuesday night, a Turkish governor and state-run media said.

Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtas said one teacher and 11 students were killed in the fire in the town of Aladag and the wounded were taken to a hospital, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, which described the building as a middle school dormitory for girls.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, Demirtas said the dormitory had 34 people and the fire may have been caused by an electrical problem. No one was left in the building, he said.

Turkish television showed flames rising from a three-story building and firefighters battling the blaze. Several windows on the building were scorched black and ashen debris littered the dormitory entrance. Footage broadcast by TRT showed a man being evacuated in an ambulance stretcher with an oxygen mask on.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak were heading to the scene, according to Anadolu. </s> A firefighter tries to extinguish burning vehicles after an explosion outside the governor's office in the southern city of Adana, Turkey, November 24, 2016. Ihlas News Agency via REUTERS

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - An explosion killed two people and wounded more than 30 outside the governor's office in the southern Turkish city of Adana on Thursday, weeks after the United States warned of attacks by what it called extremist groups.

Video footage showed a vehicle ablaze in the car park outside the building and thick black smoke rising into the sky in the city, 40 km (25 miles) from Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Windows were blown out and parts of the facade of the building, roughly six floors high, were torn off.

The state-run Anadolu agency quoted provincial governor Mahmut Demirtas as saying two people were killed. Anadolu said the blast, which occurred shortly after 8 a.m., came from a vehicle in front of the building.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Adana for a conference at a separate location, said 33 people had been wounded in the blast.

Adana is about 10 miles (16 km) from Incirlik Air Base, which the U.S. military uses to launch attacks against Islamic State militants in Syria. Families of U.S. military personnel were ordered to leave Adana and some other parts of Turkey in March over security concerns.

"Damned terror continues to target our people. We will fight with this terror to the end in the name of humanity," Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik wrote on Twitter, saying he had spoken to the Adana governor.

The U.S. embassy in Turkey strongly condemned what it described as an "outrageous terrorist attack" and said it stood against terror with Turkey, a NATO ally and member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Labour Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said Kurdish PKK militants may have been responsible and that 21 people were wounded, five of them seriously.

"It looks like they (the PKK) were probably behind it this morning yet again, as this looks like their one of their actions," he told broadcaster CNN Turk.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

PKK militants have carried out dozens of attacks on members of the security forces and government buildings since July 2015, when a ceasefire between the group and the Turkish state collapsed. Civilians have also been killed.

A Turkish soldier was killed and two wounded on Thursday after an improvised explosive device was detonated by suspected PKK militants in the southeastern province of Sirnak, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, security sources said.

The PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's southeast.

Turkey has also been hit by at least half a dozen suicide attacks blamed on Islamic State over the past year, including suicide bombings in Istanbul in January and March which killed German and Israeli tourists, and a gun-and-bomb attack at Istanbul airport which killed 45 people in June.

Turkey launched an incursion into Syria to try to push Islamic State away from the border in August, days after a suicide bomber killed more than 50 people at a wedding in the southern city of Gaziantep.

The U.S. Consulate General in Adana warned three weeks ago that "extremist groups continue aggressive efforts to attack U.S. citizens and other foreigners in Adana". The State Department has warned U.S. citizens to avoid travel to southeastern Turkey. </s> A firemen extinguishes flames from a burning car after an explosion in Adana, southern Turkey on November 24, 2016 (AFP Photo/Ilhas News Agency)

Istanbul (AFP) - A car bomb exploded in the car park of the governor's office in the southern Turkish city of Adana Thursday killing two people and wounding 33, officials said, in the latest attack to rock Turkey this year.

The explosion sparked a fire, with a cloud of dark smoke spewing into the sky, and caused damage to the governorate itself, state-run Anadolu news agency said, describing the blast as a "terror attack".

The attack is believed to have been carried out by a woman, Adana governor Mahmut Demirtas was quoted as saying by Anadolu, without providing further details.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's son-in-law, said two people were killed and 33 wounded, including one in critical condition.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting the site, Albayrak condemned the attack and said: "We have no fear from anything other than Allah."

As has been the case with previous attacks, Turkish authorities immediately slapped a broadcast ban on footage from the scene.

"This accursed terror continues to target our people," Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik, a ruling party MP from Adana, wrote on Twitter.

"We will fight against terror until the very end in the name of humanity," he added.

Celik who later visited Adana claimed the atrocity targeted the governor himself.

With a population of almost two million, Adana is one of Turkey's largest cities, located around 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Syrian border.

The US consulate in the city had in September warned its citizens of a potential threat targeting US-branded hotels there.

"We strongly condemn the outrageous terrorist attack in Adana," the US embassy in Ankara said on Twitter, adding that the United States stands "with Turkey against terror".

Incirlik air base, just outside Adana, is used by American and coalition forces as a hub for air raids against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in neighbouring Syria.

The attack came on the same day that three Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in an air strike in northern Syria that Turkey blamed on the Syrian regime.

Turkey has experienced a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead and put the country on high alert.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara, while suspected IS suicide bombers have hit Istanbul on three occasions.

In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, with authorities pointing the finger at IS.

Another 57 people, 34 of them children, were killed in August in a suicide attack by an IS-linked bomber at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

The country is also still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his alleged supporters from all state institutions.

There was no immediate indication of who was behind the latest attack.

The Turkish military has stepped up operations against Kurdish militants after a fragile ceasefire broke down in the summer of 2015. Since then, there has been a dramatic surge in violence that shows no sign of ending.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, generally concentrates its attacks in the southeast of the country.

Although located in southern Turkey, Adana lies to the west of the southeastern region that has been the main theatre of conflict with the PKK. </s> ANKARA, Turkey — At least two people were killed and 16 others wounded in an explosion Thursday in the car park of a government building in the southern city of Adana, officials said.

Omer Celik, the minister in charge of European Union affairs, said on his Twitter account that the explosion in front of the Adana governor's office was a "terror" attack. Hurriyet newspaper reported that the attack was believed to be caused by a car bomb.

"This damnable terror is continuing to target our people," Celik said. "We shall continue our struggle against terrorism until the end in the name of humanity."

Mahmut Demirtas, the governor for Adana, said the blast killed two people and wounded 16 others. He told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the explosion occurred close to the entrance to his office and suggested it may have been a suicide attack carried out by a woman.

The attack was the latest in a string of deadly bombings that have rocked Turkey in more than a year. The attacks were carried out by Kurdish militants or the Islamic State group.

Several cars in the parking lot caught fire after the blast, video footage showed. The blast also caused damage to the government building, Anadolu Agency said. </s> A police officer walks past by a fire after an explosion that killed people and wounded several others in southern city of Adana, Turkey, on Thursday (AP photo)

ISTANBUL — An explosion killed two people and wounded more than 30 outside the governor's office in the southern Turkish city of Adana on Thursday, weeks after the United States warned of attacks by what it called extremist groups.

Video footage showed a vehicle ablaze in the car park outside the building and thick black smoke rising into the sky in the city, 40km from Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Windows were blown out and parts of the facade of the building, roughly six floors high, were torn off.

The state-run Anadolu agency quoted provincial governor Mahmut Demirtas as saying two people were killed. Anadolu said the blast, which occurred shortly after 8am (0500 GMT), came from a vehicle in front of the building.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Adana for a conference at a separate location, said 33 people had been wounded in the blast.

Adana is about 16km from Incirlik Air Base, which the US military uses to launch attacks against Daesh militants in Syria. Families of US military personnel were ordered to leave Adana and some other parts of Turkey in March over security concerns.

"Damned terror continues to target our people. We will fight with this terror to the end in the name of humanity," Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik wrote on Twitter, saying he had spoken to the Adana governor.

The US embassy in Turkey condemned what it described as an "outrageous terrorist attack" and said it stood with Turkey, a NATO ally and member of the US-led coalition against Daesh.

Labour Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said Kurdish PKK militants may have been responsible and that 21 people were wounded, five of them seriously.

"It looks like they [the PKK] were probably behind it this morning yet again, as this looks like their one of their actions," he told broadcaster CNN Turk.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The privately owned Dogan news agency said police had shot the driver of a light commercial vehicle which tried to flee despite being ordered to stop by a police team which suspected it was linked to the bombing.

It said an ambulance was sent for the wounded driver along with a bomb disposal expert to inspect the vehicle.
A fire kills at least 12 people and another 22 were injured in Adana Province, Turkey.