text: ANKARA An explosion from a suspected car bomb ripped through a street in the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday near a neighborhood housing government buildings, killing three people and wounding 15, Interior Minister Naim Sahin said. 
   
   The blast struck the central Kizilay neighborhood less than a kilometer from the prime minister's office, the headquarters of the chief of general staff and several ministries. 
   
   Sahin said a parked car had exploded, setting off a chain of blasts as other vehicles blew up on a busy street. The vehicles, like many in Turkey, were powered by liquefied petroleum gas, making them more likely to explode, he said. 
   
   "It is highly probable that it's a terror attack," he said. "The explosion took place in a parked car, and was followed by explosions of other cars because they had LPG." 
   
   President Abdullah Gul, visiting Germany, condemned what he said was a terrorist attack. 
   
   "Those who have had no share of humanity carried out a terror attack against civilians in Ankara. We have fatalities. I send them my condolences and with hatred condemn the terror," Gul said, according to state-run Anatolian news agency. 
   
   A plume of thick smoke rose above the heart of the city after the blast. Reuters reporters at the scene said a line of parked vehicles had been destroyed and an adjacent row of shops was damaged, across the street from a primary school. 
   
   Ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene and police set up a security cordon while bomb disposal teams' sniffer dogs searched for any possible secondary device. 
   
   Sahin said the three people who were killed had been in nearby buildings. Of the 15 people who were wounded, five were in a critical condition. 
   
   "Kumrular street is a busy place in terms of human and vehicle traffic. It's seen that the explosion mainly targeted people," he said. 
   
   Kurdish separatists, leftists and Islamist militants have carried out bomb attacks in Turkish cities in the past. 
   
   Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was in the United States and was due to hold talks with President Barack Obama later in the day. 
   
   (Writing by Daren Butler and Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Peter Graff) ||||| A suspected car bomb exploded across a secondary school in the Turkish capital on Tuesday, wounding 15 people, authorities said. 
   
   There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack comes at a time when Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey have escalated their attacks on Turkish targets. The rebels carried out deadly bomb attacks in Turkish cities in the past. Islamic and leftist militants were also behind some bombings in this NATO-member and U.S. ally country. 
   
   "There is information that a bomb was planted on the vehicle," that exploded in the downtown Kizilay district, said Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. 
   
   The blast wounded 15 people, said Besir Atalay, another deputy prime minister. At least three of the injured were in serious condition and some of them reportedly lost their limbs. 
   
   "I felt the blast effect of the explosion some 500 meters (547 yards) away," said Ekrem Erkoc, a 42-year-old eyewitness. "I saw vehicles on fire and an injured man said people lost their limbs." 
   
   The injured were initially treated in the school yard before medics rushed to the scene and whisked them away to hospitals, NTV television said. 
   
   Kurdish rebels were last blamed for a small bomb attack in the Mediterranean resort town of Kemer on Aug. 28 that injured 10 people, including four Swedish nationals. 
   
   Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. 
   
   Turkish warplanes have bombed suspected rebel hideouts in northern Iraq last month in response to an escalation of attacks by the guerrillas. Turkey has not ruled out a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq. ||||| At least two killed in centre of Ankara by explosion that police suspect was caused by bomb. 
   
   The explosion gutted several parked cars before it was put out by fire fighters [Reuters] 
   
   At least two people have been killed and several injured in an explosion in the centre of the Turkish capital, Ankara, reports say. 
   
   
   
   Police suspect Tuesday's explosion, which happened in front of the Cankaya local administrator's office close to Ankara's downtown Kizilay square, was caused by a bomb in a vehicle. 
   
   
   
   The scene of the blast was sealed off as police feared a second explosion, the Anatolia news agency said. 
   
   
   
   The blast sparked a fire which was later put out by firefighters at the scene, NTV television reported. 
   
   
   
   Television images showed several parked cars ablaze in front of a local state authority's offices, while a plume of thick smoke rose over the area. 
   
   No further details were immediately available.
target: – A suspected car bomb rocked the Turkish capital of Ankara today, and al-Jazeera cites reports claiming that at least two people were killed. No one has yet claimed responsibility, but Kurdish rebels have been escalating their decades-long fight for autonomy and attacking Turkish targets. Rebel groups, as well as Islamic and leftist militants, have all previously used bombs in the country. Reports of casualties are conflicting: The AP reports none, but says 15 were injured, including three seriously. Reuters, meanwhile, acknowledges the reports of two deaths but quotes a local mayor who says no one has died, but that three have been seriously injured. A local news agency has reported that a woman was detained near the scene. “I felt the blast effect of the explosion some 500 meters away,” says one witness. “I saw vehicles on fire and an injured man said people lost their limbs.”