ISTANBUL // Turkish police detained four people in a hunt for the perpetrators of a car bombing in central Istanbul on Tuesday that killed seven police and four civilians.
The third deadly attack in Turkey’s biggest city in six months targeted a bus transporting anti-riot police in Beyazit district, close to many of the city’s top tourist sites, said Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin.
Thirty-six people were wounded, three of them seriously, he added.
The four suspects were taken to police headquarters in Istanbul for interrogation, the state-run Anatolia news agency said, without providing further information.
There was no early claim of responsibility, but president Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind the attack.
For the PKK to target major cities such as Istanbul “is nothing new”, he said after visiting the injured at an Istanbul hospital.
“We will fight against terrorists relentlessly to the end.”
In a later statement from his office, Mr Erdogan vowed that the culprits would “pay the price for the blood they shed”.
Kurdish militants have repeatedly targeted Turkey’s security forces, but ISIL has also staged attacks around the country – including in Istanbul – in the past year.
Tuesday’s attack occurred outside the upscale Celal Aga Konagi Hotel, a converted Ottoman mansion that is favoured by foreign tourists. Shots were heard afterwards.
The blast reduced the police vehicle to mangled wreckage and windows in nearby shops were shattered.
The 16th-century Sehzade Mosque – considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan – was also damaged by the force of the explosion.
Television footage showed its windows blown out and debris littering the floor.
Loudspeakers on mosques warned people to vacate the area, after which a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect vehicle.
Mr Erdogan, who flew back to Ankara later in the day, chaired a security summit at the presidential palace, with several ministers as well as the top army general and spy chief.
Tuesday’s bombing is the latest in a string of attacks that have rattled citizens and damaged tourism.
Two blasts in Ankara claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) – a radical splinter group of the better-known PKK – claimed dozens of lives earlier this year.
Last month, at least eight people, including soldiers, were wounded by a remotely-detonated car bomb targeting a military vehicle in Istanbul. That attack was claimed by the PKK.
On January 12, meanwhile, a dozen German tourists were killed in a bombing in the heart of Istanbul’s tourist district that was blamed on ISIL.
Two months later, three Israelis and an Iranian were killed in a bombing on Istanbul’s main Istiklal shopping street which was also blamed on ISIL.
The violence has had a devastating effect on the tourism industry.
Some 1.75 million foreigners came to Turkey in April, down more than 28 per cent on April 2015.
The fall was the steepest monthly decrease for 17 years and raised fresh concerns about the health of the industry.
* Agence France-Presse
