The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said it had carried out the attack in revenge "for the political and armed attacks targetting the Kurdish people," said a statement by the group's armed branch carried by the pro-Kurd Firat News agency.

A suicide squad killed one policeman after driving into a police station in the central city of Kayseri and opening fire with weapons before setting off a bomb.

The attack killed one officer instantly, left another in critical condition and wounded 16 civilians, including several children, according to officials.

The two assailants were also killed.

Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin had said the attackers appeared to have carried out the bombing in panic after fleeing a traffic stop in the city earlier in the day.

Sunday's statement, however, said the police station had been the target all along.

The attack marked a rare suicide bombing in Turkey, which frequently sees roadside explosions and bomb attacks carried out by the PKK.

The last suicide bombing took place last October in the eastern town of Bingol, where two people were killed when a woman blew herself up near the headquarters of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).

In November 2010 in Istanbul, a bomber blew himself up on the central Taksim square, wounding 32 people.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and by much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.