Turkey detains dozen of pro-Kurdish MPs

Turkish police yesterday detained almost a dozen MPs from the country's main pro-Kurdish party, including its two co-leaders, as eight people were killed in a deadly car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants.

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag appeared before judges in the city of Diyarbakir who were deciding whether to remand them in custody, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

As the hearings got underway, a blast blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) struck outside a police station nearby in the Baglar district of Diyarbakir, Turkey's main majority-Kurdish city.

Eight people were killed, including two police, and over 100 wounded, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced, saying the PKK had again showed its "ugly face".

With tensions again escalating in Turkey nearly four months after July's failed military coup, authorities slapped restrictions on social media including messaging services like WhatsApp.

Yildirim confirmed the move, saying such measures were imposed from "time to time" as a precaution and would be lifted once the danger had passed.

The turbulence also battered the Turkish lira, which fell to a new historic low against the dollar of 3.15 as investors took fright at looming instability.