The blast ripped through a cultural centre in Suruc, a town opposite the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane – which was hit shortly afterwards by a suicide auto bombing.
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A second official also said ISIL appeared to have been responsible and that the attack was a “retaliation for the Turkish government’s efforts to fight terrorism”.
“I personally and on behalf of my nation condemn and curse those who perpetrated this savagery”, Erdogan said in a news conference broadcast on Turkish television.
The blast occurred in the garden of the Amara Cultural Centre, where at least 300 members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) were staying as part of a summer expedition to help build the nearby Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane.
Kobane has been a symbol of resistance against the jihadists since Daesh fighters were driven out by Syrian Kurdish forces backed by US-led airstrikes.
Twenty-eight people have been killed and 100 wounded in an explosion in a Turkish town near the border with Syria. I think the number of wounded is more than 50. “I started to run after I saw the bodies”, she said by phone as she headed to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries to her legs.
The Turkish interior ministry has issued a statement saying: “We call on everyone to stand together and remain calm in the face of this terrorist attack which targets the unity of our country.”
“What gives us pause about this attack is that while the others were haphazard and sloppy… the size of this explosion suggests something more sophisticated”, said Aaron Stein, an Atlantic Council fellow who specialises on Turkey and Syria.
Earlier this month in raids across Turkey, Turkish security forces detained more than 20 people on suspicion of belonging to Islamic State. Such terrorist attacks targeting Turkey’s integrity and peace would never reach its goal, he added.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey’s interior ministry said 27 people were killed and around 100 wounded.
Ankara fears any disorder in the border area could re-ignite an armed Kurdish separatist rebellion by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has killed some 40,000 since 1984.
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A man pulls a youth just after an explosion that killed dozens of people and injured scores of others, rocked the Turkish town of Suruc near the Syrian border, Monday, July 20, 2015.
