Eleven people, seven of whom were police officers, were killed while 36 others were wounded in an attack targeting a police vehicle in Istanbul’s Vezneciler neighborhood at around 8:35 a.m. on June 7. A bomb-laden car was detonated as the police bus was passing near a police station, according to Istanbul Gov. Vasip Şahin.
Ambulances and bomb disposal teams were sent to the scene, while security measures were increased in the area.
Gunshots were heard after the explosion, according to Anadolu Agency.
Shops close to the scene of the explosion suffered damage, while police have also begun evacuating nearby buildings. The police bus was heading to the Istanbul University for regular duty, according to reports. Exams scheduled for today at the university were cancelled. Meanwhile, a controlled explosion is due to take place on a suspicious vehicle at the scene of the attack.
John Bass, the American ambassador to Turkey, called the bombing “heinous” and said the US stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Turkey.
“Deeply saddened by the barbarous terror attack in Istanbul,” he said in a statement. “Such senseless violence could never be rationalised by any cause.”
Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, also condemned the attack, which occurred on the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
“They are cold-heartedly exploding bombs on a Ramadan day,” he said in a television interview.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Isis, Kurdish militant groups and left-wing extremists have recently orchestrated attacks in Turkey.
Suspicions were turning to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in Istanbul that wounded seven people last month. A parked car was blown up as a bus carrying security force personnel passed by.
The PKK, which has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, frequently targets passing police and military vehicles with remote-controlled car bombs in south-eastern Turkey.
Tuesday’s attack was the fourth major bombing in Istanbul this year. Two of them targeting tourists and two hitting security forces. The spike in violence has led to a sharp dip in tourism, a mainstay of the economy.
One such attack involved an Isis suicide bomber targeting tourists on Istanbul’s Istiklal Street on 19 March, six days after a TAK-claimed blast in central Ankara killed more than 30 people.
The violence has sparked several travel warnings by the US, UK and European nations cautioning that further attacks were likely.
The British Government’s travel advice warns that attacks could be indiscriminate and “affect places visited by foreigners”.
