“I received a piece (of debris) to here (indicates forehead) and to my arm”, said a survivor of the explosion, Dogan Asir, still covered in blood from wounds he sustained.
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Police meanwhile carried out raids in the southern city of Adana, detaining suspected rebels of the PKK.
“Terror organizations and their pawns are targeting our innocent citizens in the most immoral and heartless way as they lose the fight against our security forces”, Erdogan said in a statement.
French President Francois Hollande condemned the “vile attack” and said France stood alongside Turkey in the fight against terror, while the U.S. ambassador in Ankara, John Bass, said he was “deeply saddened and horrified” by what had happened.
No one has claimed the attack, although Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group have carried out bombings in the city recently.
Interior Minister Efkan Ala said an investigation would conclude on Monday and those responsible would be named.
The explosion is believed to have been caused by a auto bomb that went off close to bus stops.
The Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said that attacks like this will only bolster Turkey’s resolve in fighting terrorist and it will never give up the right to defend itself.
On Feb. 17, a suicide car-bombing in the capital targeted buses carrying military personnel, killing 29 people, mostly soldiers.
But initial reports suggested that at least some of the casualties were civilians waiting at nearby bus stops, which would mark another worrying twist in the escalating violence between the Turkish government and the PKK.
(Osmancan Gurdogan/Depo Photos via AP) TURKEY OUT Members of emergency services work at the scene of an explosion in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, March 13, 2016. Opposition leaders from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) also condemned the attack.
CNN military analyst Rick Francona said that the attack, the latest in a line of deadly bombings in the capital attributed to the PKK, would precipitate change in the government’s stance.
After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of attacks against Turkish police and security forces, prompting the Turkish military operations. Istanbul, Turkey’s capital, has also been struck by several explosions in recent months.
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Medical sources told AFP the wounded had been taken to 10 different hospitals around the city, with a dozen said to be in a very serious condition.
