The explosion occurred on a road near the Narlı neighborhood at around 6 pm local time, authorities said, adding that the van was carrying road workers back home when it was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED), Turkish media reported Monday.
Numerous security forces and emergency personnel were dispatched to the scene. Two of the passengers were declared dead on the scene while eight were transferred to nearby hospitals, some of them with critical injuries.
The office of the Van Governorate issued a statement shortly after the incident and said that a large-scale anti-terror operation was launched in the area following the explosion.
Turkey building wall at Iran border to stop PKK ‘infiltration'
Turkey’s plans to complete the construction of its border wall with Iran by the end of this year to stop the infiltration of “terrorists” into the country, have almost been realized.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who reportedly inspected the construction works in the border area, told Anadolu Agency that the wall is 75 per cent complete.
Soylu added that the wall is being established for Turkey’s security.
He added that every military operation carried out by Turkey in northern Iraq to tighten the screws on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, pushed them from Turkey’s southeastern border area to its eastern border.
He claimed that there are around 100 “terrorists” in Iran’s Dambat, near Turkey, which “constitutes a real danger.”
Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.
A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.
Over the past few years, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.