The explosion near Aynalo village in Diyarbakir province killed 14-year-old boy, Umut Tepekaya, and wounded two other children, they said.

There was no information about the nature of the object or to whom it belonged. There is no military base near the village.

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 dumped explosive materials, mostly in rural areas.