He was among several people under police surveillance for some time on suspicion of recruiting militants for the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said Saffet Karahisarli, the governor of Igdir, where the incident ocurred.

The man opened fire on security forces and tried to escape when the police stopped his car, the governor said. Four other people travelling in the vehicle were detained.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

Earlier this month, the PKK said it was extending a unilateral truce by six weeks until September 1 in anticipation of a "roadmap for a democratic solution," to be announced by its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in August.