Eight killed in Turkey as violence mars local elections

Eight people were killed in isolated clashes in Turkey on Sunday during municipal elections that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes will validate him in his battle against a corruption scandal.

The voting may have become a crisis referendum on the rule of Mr Erdogan and his AK Party.

Voting went ahead peacefully in most parts of the country, but fights broke out between groups supporting rival candidates in two villages near the south-eastern border with Syria. Six people were killed in Sanliurfa province while two more died in a village in Hatay.

REUTERS