Three dead in armed attack on Turkish MP visit

At least three people have been killed and several injured in southeast Turkey, during a visit by an MP from the country's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), just weeks before a nationwide election is due to take place.

Turkish state media reported that armed men attacked the election campaign team at a town close to the Syria border, leaving three dead and at least eight injured.

MP Ibrahim Halil Yildiz - from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP - was meeting small business leaders in the town of Suruc when his team were attacked, Anadolu reported.

The MP escaped unharmed but three people were killed in the attack.

Health Minister Ahmet Demircan confirmed to Anadolu that there have been casualties. 

"There are wounded people. First aid has been given to them. There was need for an air ambulance, it has been dispatched," Demircan said.

"We will share information as we receive it."

There were conflicting reports the killings, with pro-government media saying the MP came under attack from opponents armed with knives and sticks.

State-run Anadolu said that among those killed was the brother of the MP.

It claimed that supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were among those involved in the attack.

But unconfirmed reports on pro-Kurdish media blamed bodyguards of the MP for the attack, after he was met with hostility during the visit to the shopkeepers.

Elections are due to take place on 24 June, with President Erdogan hoping to be elected and see gains for his AKP.

Suruc is a mostly Kurdish town that saw a deadly Islamic State group suicide bomb attack on Kurdish activists in 2015 with at least 31 people killed.

Agencies contribited to this story.