Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said 36 people were injured, seven seriously.
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Bomb squads, riot police and many ambulances were quickly on the scene, cordoning off Istanbul’s busiest area that starts at the city’s main Taksim Square. But the private Dogan news agency said at least three of the injured are Israeli nationals and that the wounded included two children. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was on an official visit to Istanbul, described the bombing as an attack that showed “the ugly face of terrorism”.
Turkey is still in shock from a suicide vehicle bombing last Sunday at a crowded transport hub in the capital Ankara which killed 37 people and a similar bombing in Ankara last month in which 29 died.
Both of those attacks were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, a splinter group of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
A Reuters witness in the area saw police helicopters circling overhead and television footage showed people running from the area.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called an emergency security meeting in Istanbul.
Turkey has been heightening security in the city and Ankara in the run-up to a Kurdish spring festival of Newroz on 21 March, which Kurds in Turkey traditionally use to assert their ethnic identity and demand greater rights.
The five people arrested overnight stand accused of “an attack on Turkish unity and on the Turkish people”, Anatolia said, citing an Ankara court which ordered the detentions. They want a war but our people want peace.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, “This vicious attack is the latest in a series of indefensible violence targeting innocent people throughout Turkey – Turkish citizens and worldwide visitors alike”.
“I have spoken to Ambassador Brendan Ward in Turkey and can confirm that we are aware of a number of Irish citizens among the injured”.
Germany closed its embassy in Ankara and a consulate and German school in Istanbul last week because of a warning over an imminent attack.
Saturday’s attack has been the fifth in Turkey since the beginning of 2016.
The attack is the fourth such bombing in Turkey this year.
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ISIL has carried out at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since June 2015, including a suicide bombing which killed 10 German tourists in central Istanbul in January. Bram Janssen in Istanbul, Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.
