An airstrike in southeast Turkey killed at least 31 Kurdish villagers crossing into the country from Iraq on Wednesday night, a local official from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party said.

"A group of villagers were coming from northern Iraq across the border after 9.30 p.m. Their path was blocked by soldiers and then four planes bombed them," said the official, Yunus Urek, blaming the Turkish military for the attack.

The people were from the border villages of Ortasu and Gulyazi, according to Urek, who said he was in Ortasu

"These are people who go across the border all the time, for their daily needs like sugar or fuel," he said. "Only one person survived with injuries."

Vahdettin Ozkan, the governor of Turkey's southeastern province of Sirnak, said a full investigation is underway.

"A crisis center has been set up at the governor's office, and prosecutors and security forces have been sent to the region," he told Turkey's Anadolu Agency.

Some observers have sounded the alarm in recent months about escalating tension between Turkey and its Kurdish minority, warning it may reignite a conflict that has simmered since 1984 and claimed more than 30,000 lives.

In October, an attack killed 24 Turkish soldiers in the southeast of the country. The Turkish government blamed terrorists for that attack, and the United States pinned responsibility for the attack on militants from a Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

Earlier this month, the Turkish police detained dozens of people in a wave of raids focused on pro-Kurdish media organizations.

The Kurds represent the largest ethnic minority in Turkey. For decades, they were the target of repressive government policies, implemented by officials who sometimes referred to them as "mountain Turks."

Source: CNN