Istanbul - The massacre of 44 people attending a wedding in southeastern Turkey late Monday looked like it had long been planned, the local provincial governor was quoted Wednesday as saying.

"I believe the attack had been prepared days in advance," Mardin Province governor Hasan Dururer was quoted as telling the Anadolu news agency.

He said - without going into detail - that initial enquiries indicated the motive was jealousy, but that the massacre had been staged to looked like a terrorist attack.

Eight people - including a 14-year-old youth - who had been arrested were making use of their right not to make any immediate statement, he added.

This, he insisted, meant that all media reports containing alleged statements by those detained were not true.

Local media had quoted some of them as saying the aim had been to kill all 200 people attending the wedding in the village of Bilgekoy during what had been a feud between closely-linked families.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay said earlier that the eight in custody were carrying weapons when they were arrested and they had the same surname as those killed in the attack.

Anadolu reported the feud was over who was going to marry the daughter of a former village headman. It is common practice in the mainly Kurdish-populated region for fathers to arrange their daughters' weddings.

Criticism meanwhile grew of a militia system introduced in 1985 involving use of armed guards to protect villages in the area against attacks by separatists of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party.

This was because several of the attackers were reported to have been members of such militia groups. (dpa)