Three people were wounded, including one policeman, in an explosion Friday at a police checkpoint near the Syrian border in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, local officials said.

   The cause of the blast was not immediately clear but Turkish media said emergency service vehicles rushed to the scene.

   "The explosion took place in a rubbish bin close to a police checkpoint.

Three people, including a policeman, were lightly wounded," the governor of the Sanliurfa region, which includes Suruc, Izzettin Kucuk, told Turkish television.

   First images from the scene showed that a car had been severely damaged by the blast. Kucuk did not say if the explosion had been caused by a bomb.

   Suruc lies just over the border from the Syrian town of Kobane which was recaptured last month by Kurdish fighters after a battle with Islamic State jihadists. (AFP)