The mine, planted on a rural road in a village near the Guroymak district of Bitlis province in the mainly Kurdish southeast, was detonated by remote control as a police car was passing by, Anatolia news agency quoted governor Nurettin Yilmaz as saying.

The explosion injured four people, Yilmaz told the agency. A two-year-old girl was among the dead.

Security forces combed the area in search of the assailants, believed to be members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Land mine attacks by suspected PKK guerrillas have become common in Turkey's eastern and southeastern provinces.

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