ANKARA: Turkish police have detained a man they believe to be one of the main perpetrators of car bombings that killed more than 50 people near the Syrian border, officials said yesterday.

Local governor Celalettin Lekesiz said police had detained a man identified only by the initials M.G. in Samandag district, near the Syrian border, and that he was being treated as a prime suspect. Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, said the two vehicles used in the bombings were registered to the man who was detained, and that he had driven one of them to one of the blast sites in Reyhanli.

Lekesiz said police were still searching for two other suspected perpetrators, who along with M.G. had been trying to cross over into Syria from Samandag but had failed because of stepped-up security along the border. He said the two men were believed to be still inside Turkey.