On Wednesday, German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli said the number had risen to 10.
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No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mr Maiziere said: “According to the investigations so far, there are no indications that the attack was directed specifically against Germans, so there can’t be any connection to our contribution to the fight against worldwide terrorism”.
“We heard a loud sound and I looked at the sky to see if it was raining because I thought it was thunder but the sky was clear”, said Kuwaiti tourist Farah Zamani, 24, who was shopping at one of the covered bazaars with her father and sister. Turkish officials have said he was born in 1988.
The premier said Turkey was determined to dislodge IS jihadists fully from the Syrian border, which analysts says they have controlled for much of a year ago.
“If the terrorists aimed to destroy or endanger the cooperation between partners, then they achieved the opposite”, de Maziere said.
The Anadolu Agency report said the terrorists detonated a auto laden with explosives and simultaneously launched an attack on the district office with gunfire.
Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack: Ala said one person has been arrested; later, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said four others had been detained.
Davutoglu said on Wednesday he was a member of Isis who had entered Turkey from Syria as a refugee.
Turkish police later arrested three Russians and authorities said on Thursday the army had killed nearly 200 Islamic State militants in response to the blast.
Turkish government announced that the bomb killed 10 foreigners – majority German tourists – and wounded 15 people, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.
Davutoglu said his country will take “more visible security steps” in densely populated areas to prevent such attacks in future.
There were still visitors to Sultanahmet Square on Wednesday, as many came to pay tribute to the victims, laying flowers and German football scarves.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maziere arrived in Istanbul for talks with Ala and other Turkish officials to discuss the attack.
Eleven people still remained injured at hospital, among whom nine Germans, one Norwegian and one Peruvian.
Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, and others are part of a U.S.-led coalition to fight ISIS in the region.
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. But the German foreign ministry has advised its nationals to keep away from large groups in public places and tourist attractions in Istanbul.
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“We will be discussing how we can work even more closely together in tackling the flow of foreign fighters and funding to Daesh; and how we can best support people displaced by the fighting in Syria – including through the London Syria Conference in February”. In the major southern hub of Adana, 17 people were arrested, including three more Russians as well as Tajiks, Afghans and a Swedish citizen.
