"The incident took place just one metre (three feet) from the barbed wire separating the military garrison from a wasteland," said Murat Durmaz, mayor of the Kurdish village of Ozalp in the eastern Van region, on NTV television.

Three of the four injured children, aged six to eight years, were in serious condition, he added.

Van and neighbouring regions have since 1984 have been the scene of armed rebellion by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).