A suicide attacker detonated a bomb on Istanbul’s main pedestrian shopping street on Saturday, killing five people, the city’s governor said. Turkey’s health minister said 36 people were wounded in the attack including 12 foreign nationals.
Governor Vasip Sahin said the explosion occurred outside a local government office on Istiklal Street, which is also home to cafes, restaurants and foreign consulate buildings. Sahin said one of wounded victims died in hospital and that the attacker was among the dead.
Among injured were at least three Israeli and one Iranian nationals, also that the wounded included two children.
‘It was one loud explosion’, said Muhammed Fatur, a Syrian who works at a butcher shop near the scene of Saturday’s explosion. ‘Police came to the scene and sealed off the area’.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was convening a security meeting in Istanbul following the attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.