Turkish police have detained over 140 people with suspected links to Kurdish rebels in three main cities, media reports said.

Police early Tuesday morning arrested 90 people in Istanbul after raiding several addresses around the city, Anatolia news agency reported.

The suspects are accused of having links to the urban wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Police also detained 31 people in Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the mainly Kurdish southeast, and 20 people in city of Gaziantep in the same region on the same charges, NTV news channel reported.

The number of detainees might increase in Diyarbakir as the police operation was ongoing, NTV said.

Currently, more than 2,500 Kurds, including members and five parliamentarians of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, are in jail with the same accusation.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.