( CNN ) -- A mysterious blast ripped through a busy Turkish customs gate on the border with Syria on Monday , killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens , the Turkish government said . Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc , chief spokesman for the government , said a minivan traveling from Syria to Turkey exploded . He declined to call it a terrorist attack , saying the investigation was still ongoing . `` The type of explosive could not be determined as of this time , '' Arinc said . `` In situations like this all possibilities are considered . '' There is no question , however , that this was one of the deadliest blasts to hit Turkey in years . `` It 's like hell . People are injured , '' said a Turkish smuggler who asked to use only the name Gokmen because of the illicit nature of his work . He said he was on the Syrian side of the sprawling border terminal when he heard the blast . Security Council condemns Syria 's attack on Turkey . Amateur video of the explosion aftermath showed bystanders running amid scattered shrapnel , burned-out cars and ambulances , screaming in panic and pain . Bystanders carried a bleeding man from smoking wreckage near the traffic booths where Turkish border officials normally processed transiting cars and cargo trucks . Turkey and Syria : Why neither side wants war . `` My house is two kilometers ( about a mile and a quarter ) away from the border ... but the blast was powerful enough that we heard it , '' Mahmut Iri , the mayor of the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu , said in a phone call with CNN . Iri said the explosion hit the last Turkish border gate before Syrian territory . `` I know for a fact that two of the people who died were Turks , '' Iri added . Turkish president : `` Worst-case scenario ' in Syria becoming reality . Syrian rebels first overran the Syrian border gate at Bab el Hawa last summer , flushing out government forces after days of fighting . Within several months , Turkey was allowing vehicles through the border gate to rebel-controlled Syria . Turkish officials have not yet commented on the cause of the deadly blast . Over the past 22 months , fighting has frequently spilled over Turkey 's 900-kilometer ( 560-mile ) border with Syria . In October , five Turkish civilians were killed when Syrian troops shelled the Turkish border town of Akcakale . And in June , Syrian anti-aircraft fire brought down a Turkish military reconnaissance jet over the Mediterranean Sea . When fighting erupts across the border , Turkish authorities periodically close schools that are close to Turkish territory . In recent months , the NATO military alliance has responded to a Turkish government request for assistance by deploying Patriot missile batteries around major cities close to the Syrian border . Hundreds of American , German and Dutch troops have been sent to Turkey to operate the Patriots , which the Turkish government says are designed to protect Turkey from the threat of Syrian ballistic missiles . On February 1 , a suicide bomber attacked the entrance to the U.S. Embassy in Turkey 's capital , Ankara , killing a Turkish guard and seriously wounding a Turkish journalist . A violent leftist group called the Revolutionary People 's Liberation Party-Front , or DHKP-C , claimed responsibility for the attack . In a rambling online manifesto , the group said one of the reasons the U.S. Embassy was targeted was to stop what it called American imperialist plans to colonize Syria and Turkey . Fighting inside Syria . Meanwhile , Syrian rebels claimed to have captured Syria 's largest man-made dam on Monday . `` The Free Army took control of the city of Tabqa and the Euphrates ( Tabqa ) Dam , '' the opposition Media Center in Tabqa announced in an online posting . Turkey to Syria : Do n't send arms through our airspace . `` If clashes will happen , this will cause big damage and the whole area will drown and many places will lose electricity . '' CNN could not independently confirm claims that the dam had been captured . The Syrian government did not respond to opposition claims that its forces had lost control of the dam . The Tabqa Dam was completed in the 1970s with the help of thousands of Syrian and Soviet workers . It houses a hydroelectric power station . The dam sits at the end Assad Lake , a man-made reservoir on the Euphrates River named after the father and son who have ruled Syria for the past four decades . Opposition groups distributed videos of Syrian rebels seizing caches of weapons and ammunition from positions once held by Syrian security forces . They also showed video of what appeared to be the dam itself , towering over the surrounding countryside .
NEW : Death toll in minivan ##s increased , Turkish official said . Syrian rebels first overran the Syrian border gate at Bab el Hawa last summer . Turkish officials have not yet reported on the cause of the blast . Meanwhile , Syrian rebels claim to have destroyed Syria 's largest man - made dam .