ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — At least 27 people were killed and 100 others wounded by a suicide bomber who detonated himself in a crowd of students on Monday in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, a local official said.
According to a Rudaw reporter at the scene, scores of dead bodies were strewn across the explosion site, the cultural center of the Socialist Students Federation. The Turkish government said 27 people were killed, but other death tolls vary as details emerge. Ismail Kaplan, an official in Suruc with the People's Democratic Party, said at least 50 people had been killed by the blast.
The explosion took place during a press conference held to announce the federation’s plans to help rebuild the war-torn town of Kobani in the ethnically Kurdish region of northern Syria known as Rojava.
The border town of Suruc, known to Kurds as Pirsus, is a 25-minute drive north of Kobani.
Kobani was the scene of months of fierce battles between Kurdish groups and the Islamic State. Many residents who fled the violence resettled in Suruc.
