10 wounded in blast near police station in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

AFP photo

Istanbul Gov. Vasip Şahin said 10 people, all of whom were civilians, were wounded in the blast, which occurred when a bomb placed on a motorcycle was detonated.



He added that all the wounded were in stable condition as they received treatment in hospitals.



Earlier via his Twitter account, the governor said five people had been injured, including one in serious condition.



Crime scene units, firefighters and ambulances were immediately dispatched to the scene after the explosion at around 3:50 p.m.



Security forces also took extensive security measures around the scene and evacuated the area out of fears of a second explosive device.



The windows of many houses near the scene were scattered and vehicles were damaged due to the blast.



There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.



Şahin also said work to identify the organization responsible for the blast was ongoing.



“Claims regarding the issue are being investigated. Footage has been collected and will be examined. We do not have any injuries among our police officers. We have to evaluate even the slightest possibility in such incidents. There might be another bomb placed or another intention. We want our citizens to heed warnings,” Şahin told reporters after conducting inspections at the scene.



According to witnesses, one person who was wearing a black coat, jeans and black helmet fled the scene just before the blast.



An air-supported police hunt for the suspect was continuing on main routes across the city, along with searches on public buses and metrobuses.



Meanwhile, Turkey’s media watchdog, RTÜK, imposed a customary gag order following the blast.



The site of the blast was also close to a military recruiting office and the Forensic Medicine Institute.



It was not the first time that the police station near the scene had been targeted in an attack.



In 2012, two assailants staged an armed attack on the same police station, wounding two police officers.



Turkey has been rocked by a wave of deadly bomb attacks in recent months, some blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and some on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group.



Recently, 57 people, 34 of whom were children, were killed in an ISIL attack targeting a street wedding in the southeastern province of Gaziantep near the Syrian border.



The latest attack that hit Turkey’s biggest city was on June 28, a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul’s busy Atatürk Airport, with authorities pointing the finger at ISIL.



Some 44 people were killed and hundreds were injured in the attack.



In addition, seven police officers and four civilians were killed on June 7 in a bomb attack on a police vehicle that was claimed by the outlawed Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a group allegedly linked to the PKK.

Ten people were wounded in an explosion near a police station in the Yenibosna neighborhood of Istanbul on the afternoon of Oct. 6, the Istanbul Governor’s Office has announced.