Fresh Istanbul suicide attack kills four, wounds 20

PanARMENIAN.Net - A suicide bombing rocked a major shopping street in Istanbul on Saturday, March 19 killing four people and wounding 20 others just six days after a deadly attack in Ankara, Turkish authorities said, according to AFP.

The attack took place on Istiklal Caddesi, a pedestrian street that was relatively quiet 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, according to AFP.

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 passersby, sending them rushing for cover.

Television images showed several ambulances ferrying the injured to hospital, AFP says.

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.

A Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for an attack on March 13 on a busy transport hub in Ankara that killed 35 people.

TAK, which also claimed a similar car bombing in Ankara in mid February that killed 29 people, has ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against which the Turkish army is waging a major military campaign.