ISTANBUL – A suicide bomber wounded 32 people yesterday in an attack targeting Turkish police in Istanbul’s main square, a busy tourist and shopping area.
No organisation has claimed responsibility, officials said, though the city has been targeted in the past by Kurdish separatist militants and al-Qaeda, as well as militants from Turkey’s far-left.
Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin said a man approached police at the square before blowing himself up. TV footage immediately after the explosion appeared to show police firing warning shots and people fleeing.
Fifteen policemen and 17 civilians were wounded in the attack at 10.40am in Taksim Square, but only nine, mostly police, were kept in hospital, Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said.
Taksim Square is a transport hub surrounded by restaurants, shops and hotels. The bomber struck near police buses parked close to a monument commemorating Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and victor in the war of independence in 1923. Police presence in the area is raised around national holidays such as Republic Day, which was celebrated on Friday.
Mobile phone footage taken just after the blast showed a woman lying close to the monument bleeding heavily from her leg, and a policeman lying with blood streaming from his head.
A taxi driver told CNN Turk news channel he saw a 30- to 33-year-old man approach the police, at which point the bomb detonated. Another witness said he saw two men.
The governor said police seized plastic explosives and a detonator at the scene. It was unclear whether the items had been part of a second bomb.
Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan was visiting Mardin in the southeast when the blast struck. “Those who threaten Turkey’s peace, security and development will not be tolerated,” he said in a televised speech. – (Reuters)