At least 28 people have been killed in a suicide attack in a Turkish town on the Syrian border, with officials pointing the finger of blame at the Islamic State group.

The blast on Monday ripped through a cultural centre in Suruc, a town opposite the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane – which was hit shortly afterwards by a suicide car bombing.

The force of the explosion in Suruc smashed the windows of the building in the centre of the city and set off a fire, witnesses said.

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Television footage showed several people lying on the ground covered in blood and ambulances rushing to the scene.

The interior ministry described the blast as a “terrorist attack” and vowed to find the perpetrators as soon as possible and bring them to justice.

“The Turkish authorities have strong reason to believe that the terrorist attack was perpetrated by ISIS,” a government official told AFP, using another name for ISIL.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the deadly attack in Kobane “strengthens our suspicions”.

An official in the prime minister’s office said 28 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in Suruc.

“It is a suicide attack,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will send three ministers to the southeastern region following the bombing, his office announced.

“We are calling on everyone to show common sense in the face of this terrorist attack targeting our country’s unity,” the interior ministry said.

In the Kobane attack, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a checkpoint, killing two members of Kurdish security forces, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Kobane has been a symbol of resistance against the jihadists since ISIL fighters were driven out in January.

The attacks came as Turkey was stepping up its role in the fight against the Islamic State group, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq over the past year.

In recent weeks, security forces have arrested dozens of IS militants and sympathisers in the most significant action by Ankara against the jihadists.

“It’s now obvious that the Turkish government has upgraded the threat posed by ISIS to among the top ones it is facing,” a senior Western diplomat told AFP last week.

The Suruc blast took place as a group from Turkish left-wing youth associations were preparing to make a press statement in Suruc to announce they would cross into Kobane.

The group was staying at the cultural centre.

-AAP