At least four police officers and three civilians, including a child, have been killed in a powerful car bomb explosion outside a police station near Turkey's southeastern city of Diyarbakir, according to state media.

A further 21 people, including six police officers, were also wounded in the blast on Monday near a police control post on a highway leading southeast from Diyarbakir to the city of Batman.

Footage of the aftermath of the attack showed that the blast had destroyed a large portion of the police station, including parts of its roof, with the bomb leaving a giant crater in front of the building.

Earlier on Monday, the local governor's office had said in a statement that 25 people, including eight police officers, had suffered injuries.

Local officials blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels for the attack, according to the AFP news agency.

No group, however, has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

PKK, designated a "terrorist" group by Turkey, the EU and the US, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

At least eight people, mostly civilians, were killed last week in two separate attacks blamed on the PKK in the southeast of the country, which has seen some of the most intense fighting in decades after a ceasefire between the Turkish state and the PKK collapsed in July 2015.

Thousands of PKK fighters, security force members and civilians have since been killed in fighting across the region.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map of Turkey locating Diyarbakir

Al-Jazeera