An explosion of unknown origin rocked the historic centre of Istanbul on Tuesday, causing casualties, reports said.
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A suicide bomber appeared to target foreigners in Istanbul, Turkey on Tuesday, setting off an explosion that killed 10 people and injured 15 others, many of them German nationals.
Nine of the 10 people killed Tuesday from a suicide explosion in Istanbul, Turkey, were German nationals, according to a broadcaster in the European country, citing government sources, reported the Local.
According to the Dogan News Agency, six Germans, one Norwegian, and one Peruvian were among the injured.
Surrounding streets were closed off by authorities in the aftermath and many shops and hotels appeared to have shut their doors.
“Investigations into the cause of the explosion, the type of explosion and perpetrator or perpetrators are under way”, it said.
Doruk Ergun, security analyst at Turkish think tank the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), said that the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) is the prime suspect for the attack as Turkey continues to increase its participation in efforts against the group in the country and in Iraq and Syria. The office added that it fears there is a risk of terrorist attacks across Turkey, and called on its citizens to “avoid staying near government and military institutions”.
The last major terrorist attack in the city took place in 2003, when suspected al-Qaeda-affiliated militants detonated four truck bombs in two days, killing at least 57 people.
He said he heard a woman screaming and ran to the door to see “three or four bodies” as well as the screaming woman, who was wounded, around 100 feet away.
But the radical Islamic group has been waging war in Turkey for quite some time, often engaging with Kurdish forces.
There was no immediately claim of responsibility for the attack, the latest in a string of deadly terror incidents to strike the nation. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bombing that hit Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet Square, calling it a “despicable crime”, Xinhua reported.
Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office at the time of the explosion, told NTV television he saw several people lying on the ground following the blast.
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held an emergency meeting in Ankara with the interior minister and security chiefs after the bombing. “Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion”. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the attack on a Syrian suicide bomber, a media report said. Last summer, two attacks – in June and July – left more than 30 people dead.
