ISTANBUL A bomb attack believed carried out by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) seriously injured the provincial Governor of Cankiri and killed two bodyguards and two passers-by Friday morning, Turkish Interior Minister Cahit Bayar said. The bomb went off in a parked car as Provincial Governor Ayhan Cevik's vehicle passed by in the provincial capital Cankiri, Bayar said. Bayar, who is in Istanbul for a meeting of provincial officials on security measures for the national elections on April 18, said early reports from the scene did not indicate how many people may have been injured in the attack.

But he said Cevik was reported to be in serious condition. Two of his bodyguards were among the four people killed. The PKK has stepped up its militant campaign for Kurdish autonomy following the arrest of its leader Abdullah Ocalan last month by Turkish authorities. Ocalan is scheduled for trial later this month on terrorism charges. Meanwhile, the Kurdish guerrillas of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan have said they plan to step up their armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey and extend their fight against rival Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq. A statement from the guerrilla leadership was read out late on Thursday night by the Belgian-based Kurdish MED TV channel hours before four people died in a car bomb attack in the central Turkish town of Cankiri. It was not clear if the Cankiri blast, which seriously wounded the local governor, was the work of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

But officials said suspicion naturally fell on the rebels, whose supporters have mounted sporadic violent demonstrations across Turkey since Ocalan's capture last month. (DPA)