The soldiers were inside a military vehicle when the device, planted by militants of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on a road outside Lice in Diyarbakir province, was detonated by remote control, the report said.

An operation was under way in the area to hunt down the perpetrators.

Landmine attacks have become a hallmark of PKK violence in the southeast in recent years.

The group has significantly stepped up violence since its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan said in late May he was abandoning efforts to seek dialogue with Ankara for a peaceful end to the Kurdish conflict.

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