The explosion occurred outside a garrison in the outskirts of Mus city as the 13-year-old boy played with the device, the sources said.

An army helicopter flew the boy to a hospital in nearby Malatya.

Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast has been the theatre of a bloody 26-year conflict between the army and separatist Kurdish rebels that has claimed some 45,000 lives.

Other children have been killed or injured in the past after tampering with hand grenades or small homemade bombs they have found dumped outdoors, mostly in rural areas.