Police officers examine the scene outside the police headquarters in Gaziantep after the blast.

Story highlights

Two police officers dead, 22 people injured

Explosion caused by a car bomb, governor says

Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks claimed by ISIS or Kurdish militants

CNN  — 

A car bomb in front of a police headquarters in southeastern Turkey killed two officers and left 22 people injured Sunday, the country’s semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.

The explosion struck at 9.20 a.m. Sunday morning in front of the local police headquarters in the city of Gaziantep, Gaziantep Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said, according to Anadolu.

The injured included 18 police officers and four civilians, the agency reported, citing health officials.

Footage from CNN Turk showed ambulances at the scene, as authorities secured the site of the blast.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu described the bombing as “atrocious” and offered his condolences to the victims’ families, Anadolu reported.

String of terror attacks

Turkey has been roiled by a series of deadly attacks over the past year, claimed by ISIS or Kurdish militants.

On Wednesday, a suspected suicide bomber struck a mosque in the northwestern city of Bursa.

And last month, ISIS claimed responsibility for shooting a Syrian religious leader and TV personality in Gaziantep, which is near the border with Syria.

Other attacks so far this year include a bombing in January in Istanbul that killed at least 10 people, a car bomb in Ankara that killed at least 28 in February, a March 13 bombing in Ankara that killed 34, a March 19 suicide bombing in Istanbul in which at least four were killed and a March 31 car bombing in Diyarbakir that killed seven police officers.

Turkish police have also arrested four ISIS members suspected of preparing a terror attack on an International Workers Day demonstration in Ankara, Anadolu reported.

The suspects, who police said were from Syria, were detained at midnight Saturday after a surveillance operation, the news agency reported.