ANKARA: A spokesman for Turkey´s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was killed and seven others were wounded in an attack on one of the far-right movement´s campaign offices in Istanbul, media reports said Monday.

The attack took place late Sunday in the working class Esenyurt district shortly after the office´s inauguration ahead of local polls due in March, the Dogan news agency reported.

Police have arrested six suspects in connection with the attack.

Celal Adan, a top leader of the party, which has the third largest grouping in parliament, pointed the finger at the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK).The Istanbul neighbourhood where the deadly attack occurred is home to a large Kurdish community and several of its members are reported to have demonstrated in front of the MHP premises before the inauguration.

A graft investigation into several of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan´s top political and business allies has plunged Turkey into a deep political crisis.

SOURCE: AFP