Masked gunmen armed with assault rifles attacked a wedding party in southeastern Turkey late on Monday, killing at least 44 people, including six children, and injuring three others, authorities said.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay told reporters in a televised press conference that eight people were detained and said it was unlikely that the incident was a terror attack.

"The initial information shows that the attack has no link to terrorism," Atalay said, adding Turkish authorities were carrying out a comprehensive investigation into the incident.

There had been hostility between two families in the small village of southeastern province of Mardin in recent years, Atalay told reporters.

"Unfortunately most of the dead and the detained have the same surname," he added.

State-run Anatolian Agency reported the daughter of the village chief, called a muhtar, was being married when the attack, which lasted 15 minutes, occurred.

"There were a few people, they broke into the house and started spraying the place with bullets, hitting both men and women, their faces were covered with masks," a 20-year-old female eyewitness, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

She said there were some 200 people at the wedding party.