Blasts rip through Ankara peace rally
Nearly simultaneous explosions targeted a Turkish peace rally Saturday in Ankara, killing at least 95 people and wounding hundreds in Turkey’s deadliest attack in years – one that threatens to inflame the nation’s ethnic tensions.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were ‘‘strong signs’’ that the two explosions – which struck 50 metres apart just after 10am – were suicide bombings. He suggested that Kurdish rebels or Islamic State group militants were to blame.
The two explosions occurred seconds apart outside the capital’s main train station as hundreds of opposition supporters and Kurdish activists gathered for the peace rally organised by Turkey’s public workers’ union and other groups. The protesters planned to call for increased democracy in Turkey and an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces.
The attacks came at a tense time for Turkey, a Nato member that borders war-torn Syria, as it hosts more refugees than any other nation in the world and has seen renewed fighting with Kurdish rebels that has left hundreds dead in the last few months.
Many people at the rally had been expecting the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to declare a temporary ceasefire – which it did hours after the bombing – to ensure Turkey’s November 1 election would be held in a safe environment.
Television footage from Turkey’s Dogan news agency showed a line of protesters on Saturday near Ankara’s train station, chanting and performing a traditional dance with their hands locked when a large explosion went off behind them.
An Associated Press photographer saw several bodies covered with bloodied flags and banners that demonstrators had brought for the rally.
‘‘There was a massacre in the middle of Ankara,’’ said Lami Ozgen, head of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, or KESK.
The state-run Anadolu Agency said the attacks were carried out with TNT explosives fortified with metal ball-bearings.
Turkey’s government raised the death toll in the twin bomb blasts to 95 people killed, 248 wounded. It said 48 of the wounded were in serious condition.