DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Aug 29 (AFP) - A driver was injured on Sunday when an explosion caused a freighter train to derail in southeastern Turkey, officials said.
The blast ocurred when the train ran over either a mine or a bomb planted on the tracks in the province of Bingol by suspected Kurdish rebels.
"The initial information we have is that a bomb planted on the tracks exploded. One of the drivers was injured," a spokesman for Turkey`s state-run railway authority, Mehmet Ayci, told AFP.
Local security sources, however, said that a mine caused the blast.
Security forces in the region launched an operation to hunt down the assailants, who were thought to be Kurdish militants, the sources said.
Kurdish rebels have recently been blamed for a series of mine blasts on roads in the region.