Members of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), including MP Ibrahim Halil Yildiz, came under attack in Suruc, just across the Syrian border from Kobane on Thursday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
"There are wounded people. First aid has been given to them. There was need for an air ambulance, it has been dispatched," said Turkey's Health Minister Ahmet Demircan, adding that "we will share information as we receive it."
Three people were reportedly shot dead and at least eight more injured.
Dogan News Agency reported that MP Yildiz was visiting shopkeepers when a heated argument with a group of unidentified persons turned violent.
MP Yildiz escaped the incident unscathed. However his older brother Mehmet Ali Yildiz is among the dead, succumbing to his wounds after arriving at the hospital.
An anonymous source claimed to Anadolu that the attackers were from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Other reports said the group had expressed support for the PKK.
Pro-Kurdish media, however, have blamed Yildiz’s bodyguards for the attack and the deats.
An investigation is ongoing.
HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan reacted to the shooting during a campaign event in Istanbul. “We condemn those who do this,” she said, accusing people of trying to upset the election.
The party’s executive board sent its condolences to the injured and family members and gave a reminder to the media and government to be cautious and responsible in their language in order to not inflame tensions through unsubstantiated allegations.
The elections should not be fought with blood, the board said.
Surac is a majority Kurdish town in the Sanliurfa region and the location of the July 20, 2015 bombing which claimed 34 lives and injured roughly 100 people. The bombing was blamed on ISIS.
Voters in Turkey will go to the polls to elect a president and parliament in snap elections on June 24.
These elections are seen as very significant and sensitive. They are the first after the country adopted a strengthened presidential system in a constitutional referendum in 2017 and the first after the failed coup of 2016.
The vote also comes as Turkey has stepped up its military campaign against the PKK, including cross-border operations into Syria and the Kurdistan Region.
The country has been under a state of emergency since 2016, though incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would lift the emergency measures if he is re-elected.
Updated at 10:05 pm
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