The incident occurred in the Bitlis region and is thought to be connected to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Anatolia news agency citing the local governor, reported.

Mevlut Atbas, the governor of Bitlis, said the two soliders stepped on the mine during a security sweep in the countryside.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the Turkish government and much of the international community, announced a unilateral ceasefire last October.

Ankara rejected it, but the fighting -- which has seen more than 37,000 people killed since the PKK's armed campaign for self-rule began in 1984 -- has largely subsided since then.