The news followed an explosion which hit the town, a witness told Reuters news agency, sending plumes of smoke into the air. It came days after the town suffered an attack by ISIS militants that killed at least 145 people.

The cause of the explosion, which appeared to come from the center of the town, was not immediately clear, said a Reuters cameraman who was near the town at the Turkish border.

But according to a local Iraqi TV station, the explosion blew up the Doctors Without Borders base in Kobane, which ISIS militants had reportedly seized.