Turkey's state-run television says a woman was killed when a bomb she was carrying went off in Istanbul.

TRT television says police found the woman's body on a street ub Istanbul's Sancaktepe neighborhood late on Thursday, shortly after residents reported an explosion.

Police were trying to determine whether the woman, who was in her 30s, was a suicide bomber or whether she was killed when the bomb went off prematurely, before she had the chance to plant it.

Kurdish rebels who are fighting Turkey for autonomy have staged bomb attacks, including suicide bombings, in the city in the past.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.