Turkish policeman killed, 9 wounded in raid on PKK

A member of the Kurdish militant group was also killed during the early morning operation in Diyarbakir city

A member of Turkey's police special forces patrols during a security operation against PKK militants in Diyarbakir on November 3, 2017. Sertac Kayar / Reuters

One Turkish police officer was killed and nine others were wounded on Friday during a raid to capture a suspected Kurdish militant in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir.

The officers launched the operation to arrest a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the district of Kayapinar west of Diyarbakir city centre, the governor's office said.

When they entered the building, clashes broke out during which a hand grenade was detonated and 10 officers were wounded. One died later in hospital.

Local resident Zahide Kilinc said she woke up to the sounds of gunfire about 6am and saw officers open fire on a flat nearby.

"Of course we were scared, the children were scared. It was like there was an attack on our home and not the opposite flat," she said.

The governor's office said a member of the PKK was also killed during the clashes.

The PKK is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since it launched its insurgency in Turkey in 1984.

Fighting intensified in the south-east between Turkish security forces and the PKK after the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in 2015.

Six soldiers and two military security guards were killed on Thursday in clashes with the PKK in the province of Hakkari which borders Iraq.

The interior ministry said on Thursday its security forces killed 46 members of the "separatist terror organisation" - Turkey's official term for the PKK - in Sirnak and Hakkari in the south-east and Tunceli in the east.