Militants suspected of belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) detonated a bomb at the section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline passing through the Sarikamis district of Turkey’s northeastern province of Kars Monday night, BGN News reports.
The attack occurred at 10:00 pm local time (7:00 pm GMT) on Monday at the Sarikamis Hill location, roughly 2 kilometers from the Sarikamis district.
100 meter (330 foot) flames erupted from the site of the blast. Easily visible from nearby towns, the flames finally went out at 11:00 pm local time (8.00 pm GMT), a short while after the valves had been closed off.
Sarikamis district governor Yusuf İzzet Karaman likened the explosion to a similar one at the same site 2 years ago.
Kars Governor Günay Özdemir announced that the attack was the work of the PKK. He added that the location of the explosion was fortunately far away from any residential areas.
Security measures have been taken in the area.