Bomb Blast In Turkey Kills 10, Leaves 15 Injured

A bomb blast which ripped through the historic Sultanahmet square at central Istanbul, has left ten people dead and 15 others injured.




The explosion at the major tourist attraction, occurred at about 10.20am local time on Tuesday, January 12.

Police secure the area after an explosion in central Istanbul, Turkey January 12, 2016. Turkish police sealed off a central Istanbul square in the historic Sultanahmet district on Tuesday after a large explosion, a Reuters witness said, and the Dogan news agency reported several people were injured in the blast. REUTERS/OsmanOrsal

In a statement quoted by the Dogan news agency, the city governor’s office said: “Investigations into the cause of the explosion, the type of explosion and perpetrator or perpetrators are underway,”.

At least one witness reported that a suicide bomber was responsible for the explosion, but the official cause of the explosion has not been announced, as there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Al Jazeera’s Emre Rende, reporting from Istanbul, said information was scarce immediately after the blast.

“Witnesses have said that the blast was heard from other neighbourhoods,” he said.

“Witnesses said that the ground shook, ” Rende added.

A witness, Erdem Koroglu told NTV that he saw several people lying on the ground following the blast, as it was hard to tell who was alive or dead.

Ambulances rushed to the site of the blast which is close to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, in a major tourist area of Turkey’s most populous city, ferrying away the wounded as police cordoned off streets.

Police are reportedly taking extra measures to protect people against the possibility of a second explosion.

The blast comes just over a year after a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a police station for tourists off the same square, killing one officer and wounding another.

Turkey has seen several attacks of this magnitude in recently times. on Saturday, October 10 2015, two suspected suicide bombers killed 86 people and left scores injured at a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists outside Ankara’s main train station in Turkey.

Few months earlier, about 27 people reportedly died and 100 injured, after an explosion at a cultural centre in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc.