An unidentified woman has died in Istanbul after explosives she was carrying went off, local media said on Friday.

The woman, whom the Turkish police suspect to be a suicide bomber, was torn to bits by the explosion that occurred in the Sancaktepe neighborhood late on Thursday, according to Local television.

There are no reports of other people being killed or injured by the explosion.

The police suspect that the woman, whose identity has not yet been revealed, was acting on behalf of the rebel group Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK over the past two decades.

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