TUNCELI, Turkey, May 1 (Reuters) - A Kurdish separatist group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in a western Turkish resort town that killed a police officer, a news agency known to have close links with the group reported.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), a group known to carry out urban attacks for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was quoted as telling the Europe-based Mezopotamya News Agency that the TAK was behind the bomb blast in Kusadasi on Saturday.

Four policemen were wounded in the explosion that occurred when they investigated a suspicious package next to a statue of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the town centre.

Police were setting up a security cordon after a report of the package in front of the statue when the explosion happened.

The spokesman also said the group was behind two incidents last week in Istanbul where police defused bombs placed under a bridge and at a municipal bus park.

The spokesman said the organisation was planning urban attacks and warned the "Western tourists to stay away from Turkey".

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, but violence subsided after the 1999 capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan.