Carnage as woman bomber targets shoppers in Istanbul
AT LEAST six people were killed and 81 wounded in a suspected terrorist bomb attack by a woman in Istanbul yesterday.
The explosion ripped through the Turkish city’s popular Istiklal Avenue shopping street at around 4.20pm.
Videos posted online showed flames erupting after a loud blast as people fled in horror. Bodies and an empty pushchair could be seen on the ground.
Four people died at the scene and another two died in hospital, with fears casualty numbers would increase overnight.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan last night condemned the ‘vile attack’ and said ‘the smell of terror’ was in the air.
Vice-president Fuat Oktay added: ‘We believe it is a terrorist act carried out by an attacker, whom we consider to be a woman, exploding the bomb.’
Justice minister Bekir Bozdag said: ‘A woman had been sitting on one of the benches for more than 40 minutes and then she got up.
‘One or two minutes later, an explosion occurred. There’s either a mechanism in this bag and it explodes, or someone remotely explodes [it].’
Eyewitness Cemal Denizci said: ‘I saw three or four people on the ground. People were running in panic.’
The same street was targeted by a suicide bomber in 2016.