Irish minister for trade and foreign affairs Charlie Flanagan expressed his “horror and sadness” at the bombing, saying: “I am deeply saddened by today’s horrific bomb attack in central Istanbul”.
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The minister said five people had been arrested on suspicion of links to the attack.
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon has said that Saturday’s suicide bombing in Istanbul is the “kind of tragedy which can bring Israel and Turkey closer together”. Prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who are killed in the explosion.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in an area of Istanbul popular with tourists on Saturday, killing four others and wounding at least 36.
Turkey is battling a widening Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, which it sees as fueled by the territorial gains of Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria, and has also blamed some of the recent bombings on Islamic State militants who crossed from its southern neighbor.
“We are looking into the possibility that this terror attack was aimed at Israelis”, Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
The White House says two Americans were among those killed in a suicide attack in Istanbul. The group had just eaten breakfast nearby when the blast ripped through the street.
A Western diplomatic source said the attacker may also have had tourists in his sights.
There are reports that the bomber was on the way to an even more crowded spot at another target, and may have been deterred by police and detonated the bomb “out of fear”.
“This is a suicide attack, a terrorist attack”, Sahin said at the scene, according to Sky News.
And more than 100 people died outside Ankara railway station in October 2015 when IS militants carried out a double bombing close to the headquarters of the national intelligence organisation.
Streets across the city, usually bustling with traffic and pedestrians on Sundays, were eerily quiet apart from the sound of police helicopters buzzing overhead.
“It was one loud explosion”, said Muhammed Fatur, a Syrian who works at a butcher shop near the scene of the explosion.
The blast, which also wounded at least 39 people, was a few hundred metres from an area where police buses are often stationed. The two parents were slightly injured, while their children were unhurt.
TAK, which also claimed a February suicide bombing targeting troops in Ankara that killed 29 people, has ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) against which the Turkish army is engaged in a major offensive.
Twelve of those hurt are said to be foreigners – half of them from Israel.
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Skin, the lead singer of English band Skunk Anansie, was inside a hotel near where the explosion occurred and said she was left “very shaken” after the building “shook like paper”.
