A square was rocked by an explosion in the center of the historical Sultanahmet tourist district in Istanbul on Tuesday and witness and a police officer in the scene reported seeing body parts following the blast.
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The area, on the European side of Istanbul, is home to the city’s most popular tourist sites, including the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya and contains hundreds of hotels and restaurants.
Police and ambulances raced to the scene, throwing up a tight security cordon around the area as helicopters hovered overhead, and crowds of anxious locals and tourists clamoured to find out what had happened, an AFP correspondent said.
Istanbul, Turkey’s second most populous city, has been the target of bomb blasts before.
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that German citizens may have died in the attack and that Germans were nearly certainly among the injured.
Turkey’s AHaber television said the blast may have been caused by a suicide bomber, but this was not independently confirmed.
“I condemn the terror incident in Istanbul assessed to be an attack by a suicide bomber with Syrian origin”.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of Turkish rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without authorization.
The governor’s office in Istanbul claims that ten people, including tourists, were killed and at least fifteen were injured in the explosion, Daily Hurriyet informs.
The Istanbul governor’s office said the authorities were investigating the type of explosive used and who might have been responsible for the attack.
At least six Germans, one Norwegian and a Peruvian were among the wounded, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported.
The nationalities of the casualties weren’t immediately known, but eyewitnesses and shopkeepers close to the explosion said the victims appeared to be mostly tourists. He said that the German government is in contact with Turkish authorities and condemned the attack as a “barbaric act of terrorism”.
The state-run Anadolu Agency says several police and medics were sent to the area.
But Turkey is also waging an all-out assault on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has staged dozens of deadly attacks against members of the security forces in the southeast.
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Turkey suffered two major bombing attacks a year ago.
