A group of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants have kidnapped seven people in southeastern Turkey, private Dogan news agency reported on Sunday.
The PKK rebels on Saturday kidnapped seven people, including five from a same family who were collecting firewood in the forest area of Senoba zone in Uludere town in Sirnak province, the report said, adding that security forces had launched a major search operation in the region.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and some other countries, took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland for the Kurds in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have been killed in conflicts involving the PKK.