The explosion was strong enough to be heard in other areas of the city.
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Turkish officials have been quoted as saying that a suicide bomber, identified as a Syrian, was behind the deadly explosion that hit Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet Square. He recently entered Turkey through Syria, officials said.
An explosion rocked a central square in Istanbul on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 others, the Istanbul governor’s office said.
Officials are working to verify whether any Britons were killed in a suspected suicide bombing in an area of Istanbul popular with tourists, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said.
Ambulances and police were despatched to Sultanahmet, the city’s main tourist hub, which is home to world-famous monuments including the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, television reports said.
Deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus said the bomber was a 28-year-old Syrian national, and most of the people who died were foreigners. The cause of the explosion, which could be heard from several neighborhoods, was not immediately known but TRT said the blast was likely caused by a suicide bomber.
Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported that at least six Germans, one Norwegian and a Peruvian were among the wounded, while Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said one South Korean had a finger injury. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry told Norway’s news agency NTB that the Norwegian tourist was slightly hurt and was being treated in a local hospital.
More than 30 people were killed in an Islamic State suicide attack in the town of Suruc, near the border with Syria, in July. A spokesman for the National Security Council said the USA stood by its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey, pledging “our ongoing cooperation and support in the fight against terrorism“.
Turkey last summer opened its Incirlik air base to USA warplanes carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria.
It has also moved to tighten security along its 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria in a bid to stem the flow of militants.
The Sultanahmet area is Istanbul’s main sight-seeing district and includes the Topkapi Palace and Blue Mosque.
Turkey’s intelligence service also has information that the citizens of the country, who underwent a training with the IS militants, intend to return to Turkey to prepare terrorist attacks there.
Update 3.20pm: So-called Islamic State has been blamed for the Istanbul suicide bomb that killed 10 at popular tourist site.
Police are reportedly taking extra measures to protect people against the possibility of a second explosion.
Confirming and providing new detail about earlier reports, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says eight Germans are among the dead in Istanbul.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held an emergency meeting in Ankara with the interior minister and security chiefs after the bombing.
The explosion at the major tourist attraction, occurred at about 10.20am local time on Tuesday, January 12. Those explosions killed as many as 100 people and injured more than 240 more.
The Turkish government has imposed an image blackout for restricting media coverage of Tuesday’s attack, an action frequently taken after such incidents.
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Meanwhile, Turkey is also cracking down on the home-grown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is branded as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union as well.
