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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - An explosion hit a cultural centre in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc near the Syrian border on Monday killing at least 20 people, local TV reported, according to Reuters news agency.

The cause of the blast in the town which lies opposite the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane was not immediately clear.

But several media reports said it might have been a bomb and some commentators said it could have been the work of militants from the Islamist State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Several Turkish media reported fatalities and private television station NTV said at least 10 people had been killed.

Witnesses said fire broke out after the explosion and television footage showed ambulances rushing to the scene.

A Turkish government official confirmed to AFP that the explosion occurred in the garden of a culture centre in Suruc. But he declined to provide any casualty figures.

Suruc is home to one of the biggest refugee camps housing Syrians who have fled the bloody conflict at home.

The camp, which opened in January, shelters about 35,000 refugees who crossed the border after Islamic State jihadists seized Kobane last year.

Kurdish forces drove ISIS fighters from Kobane in June, taking full control of the town after a lightning raid by the Islamist militants.

In January, Kurdish forces backed by rebel groups and U.S.-led air strikes had pushed ISIS out of Kobane after four months of fierce fighting in a hugely symbolic defeat for the jihadists.

But ISIS launched a surprise attack on the Syrian town last month, staging three suicide bombings and re-entering the town.

Many of the injured had been taken to hospitals in Suruc.

Several hundred thousand Syrians have taken refuge in Turkish camps along the border but the vast majority of them are scattered in major cities, where their presence has stoked tensions with locals.