Six dead, at least 81 injured in Istanbul blast and Turkish President Erdogan says it ‘smells like terrorism’
A view of an ambulance at the scene after an explosion on the busy pedestrian street of Istiklal in Istanbul, Turkey, November 13, 2022.
Kemal Aslan | Rueters
Six people were killed and 81 others injured on Sunday when an explosion rocked a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul in what Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called a “possible” bombing. smells like terror”.
Ambulances rushed to the scene on busy Istiklal Avenue, where police quickly cordoned off. The area, in the Beyoglu district of Turkey’s largest city, is as crowded as usual on weekends with shoppers, tourists and families.
Video obtained by Reuters shows the moment the explosion, which occurred at 4:13 p.m. local time (1313 GMT), sent debris into the air and left some people lying on the ground, while others gave up. run.
About four hours after the explosion, Vice President Fuat Oktay and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu visited the site of the explosion.
Oktay said the number of people injured was 81 and reiterated that six people died in the explosion.
“We will deal with this very soon,” Oktay told reporters.
Mr. Erdogan told a news conference in Istanbul that “attempts to defeat Turkey and the Turkish people through terrorism will fail today just as they did yesterday and just as they will.” fail tomorrow.”
“Our people can rest assured that the perpetrators behind the attack will be punished as they deserve,” he said, adding that initial information suggested “a woman played a role.” in there.
“It would be wrong to say this was definitely a terrorist attack but the initial developments and initial intelligence from my governor is that it smells like terrorism,” he added.
No one claimed responsibility for the explosion. Istanbul and other Turkish cities have been targeted by Kurdish separatists, Islamist militants and other groups, including in a series of attacks in 2015 and 2016.
‘Everyone freezes’
Reuters footage showed people tending to victims after the blast, and then investigators dressed in white collecting documents from the scene, where fragments of a concrete planter were scattered across the floor. avenue.
Mehmet Akus, 45, a restaurant worker in Istiklal, said: “When I heard the explosion, I was petrified. People were dumbfounded, looking at each other. Then people started running. You can’t stop. nothing else,” said Mehmet Akus, 45, a restaurant worker in Istiklal.
“My relatives called me, they know I work on Istiklal. I reassured them,” he told Reuters.
A helicopter flew over the scene and several ambulances were parked in nearby Taksim Square. The Turkish Red Crescent said blood was being delivered to nearby hospitals.
“We are assessing it as an act of terrorism,” said Vice President Oktay.
If confirmed, it would be the first major bomb blast in Istanbul in several years.
Double bombings outside a football stadium in Istanbul in December 2016 killed 38 people and wounded 155 in an attack claimed by an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). , designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
Condolences for the attack and condolences for the victims came from a number of countries including Greece, Egypt, Ukraine, Great Britain, Azerbaijan, Italy and Pakistan.
On Twitter, European Council President Charles Michel offered his condolences to the victims after “terrifying news”.
