Witnesses said unidentified assailants hurled explosives at the building in Uskudar [AFP]

Witnesses said unidentified assailants hurled explosives at the building in Uskudar, on Istanbul's Asian side, but the police cautioned against early conclusions.

One blast occurred in a garbage-collecting truck in the car park of the building, while two others ripped through a neighbouring cemetery, Mehmet Cakir, the mayor of Uskudar said.

"Three workers were slightly injured," Celalettin Cerrah, the Istanbul police chief said at the scene.

He said bomb experts were investigating the incident, but added it was too early to conclude it was a bomb attack against the building, raising also the possibility that waste materials in the garbage-collecting truck might have exploded.

Witnesses said explosives were hurled from behind trees in the cemetery, located behind the municipal building and two people on a motorbike were seen fleeing the scene.

The explosions shattered the windows of the building and damaged vehicles in the car park.

Two bombs, blamed on separatist Kurdish fighters, ripped through a crowded street in Istanbul's European side on July 27, killing 17 people and leaving about 150 others injured.

Eight people accused of belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were subsequently arrested in connection with the blasts.

Leftist and Islamist fighters have in the past also carried out bomb attacks in Turkey's biggest city.

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