The bomb went off on a main street in Bingol. Google Maps

A female suicide bomber has killed three people and injured at least a dozen more in southeast Turkey.

The explosion occurred in the early afternoon in a teahouse near the building of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Bingol, a predominantly Kurdish town, according to Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin.

The attack was on one of the city’s busiest arteries, shattering glass windows in surrounding buildings.

Police said the woman had detonated explosives that were on her body, adding they were hunting for another suspected bomber.

The attack comes 10 days after Turkey's military launched operations in both southeastern Turkey and in neighbouring northern Iraq, where the Kurdish rebels maintain bases.

The Turkish government mounted the operation after 24 Turkish soliers were killed in simultaneous attacks on their posts in Hakkari, the most southeasterly province.

Turkey's conflict with the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has killed tens of thousands of people since the insurgents took up arms in 1984. The PKK is demanding an independent homeland.

The last suicide bombings occurred in September, when a bomb was detonated outside a paramilitary station near a Mediterranean resort town, injuring two people.

Ten days before, a car bomb in the capital of Ankara killed five people.

Another Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons or TAK, claimed responsibility for the car bombing and threatened more attacks.

The bombing comes just as Turkey is dealing with a natural disaster, after thousands of people were made homeless by a powerful earthquake in the largely Kurdish Van province.

With files from The Associated Press