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A car bomb went off near a military barracks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Thursday, wounding at least eight people, as Turkey was on high alert for attacks.

The blast took place close to a vehicle carrying military personnel in Istanbul's Sancaktepe neighbourhood on the Asian side of the city far from the city centre, to Turkish media.

Television pictures showed the vehicle where the explosion took place was almost completely destroyed, with yellow flames rising from the debris.

Images of a cloud of smoke rising up over the streets were on social media.

Thursday's attack is the latest in a series of bombings to hit Turkey this year.

Two suicide bombings in tourist areas of Istanbul have been blamed on the Islamic state group [IS] and two car bombings in the capital, Ankara, have been claimed by a Kurdish militant group.

Turkey is a member of the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq, and is also battling an insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast region.