Hundreds of people fled a conflict-hit area of southeast Turkey's largest city of Diyarbakir on Wednesday, February 3, taking advantage of the lifting of a curfew to escape any further clashes between security forces and Kurdish militants, Reuters reports.

A Reuters witness said people left the city's Sur district with suitcases, televisions and carpets loaded onto pick-up trucks and handcarts, deserting an area damaged heavily in fighting since a curfew was declared there a month ago.

"It's always the ordinary people who suffer," said Mehmet Ceylan, 45, carrying a bundle on his back. "I've lived in Sur for years, and I've never witnessed a scene like this."

Hundreds of militants and security force members have been killed since July when a ceasefire collapsed, triggering the worst violence in two decades and wrecking hopes for a peace deal in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 since 1984.

The chief district administrator's office in Sur on Wednesday declared the lifting of a week-old curfew in Sur's western parts. However, the eastern side remained under a round-the-clock curfew, Reuters says.

The state says the curfews, also in place elsewhere in the southeast, are imposed so police can remove barricades, explosive devices and ditches set up by the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.