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29 March 2024

Istanbul suicide attack kills 4

A police officer secures the area following a suicide bombing in a major shopping and tourist district in central Istanbul March 19, 2016. (Reuters)

Published
By AFP

A suicide bombing rocked a major shopping street in Istanbul on Saturday, killing four people and wounding 20 others just six days after a deadly attack in Ankara, Turkish authorities said.

The attack took place on Istiklal Caddesi, a pedestrian street that was relatively quiet on Saturday morning but is usually thronged with shoppers, strollers and buskers later in the day.

"This is a suicide attack, a terrorist attack," Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told reporters at the scene, saying the bomber was also killed.

Three of the wounded were in serious condition, he said.

The bomb exploded near a shopping mall, but Sahin said the intended target was a local authority building in the Beyoglu neighbourhood, where Istiklal Caddesi is situated.

The street, which adjoins Taksim Square in the European part of the city, was evacuated after the attack, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Armed police sealed off the area while a police helicopter hovered overhead.

CCTV footage published online by Dogan news agency appeared to show the moment of the blast with a fireball erupting near a handful of passers-by, sending them rushing for cover.

Television images showed several ambulances ferrying the injured to hospital.

Turkey, which has been rocked by five major bombings since July, had been on high alert for further attacks ahead of Kurdish New Year celebrations on Monday.