A Syrian woman has been arrested by Turkish police on Monday for planting a bomb that killed six people in central Istanbul, adding that she was working for Kurdish gunmen.
Six people were killed and 53 others were wounded on Sunday when an explosion rocked a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul in what Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called a bomb attack that “smells like terrorism.”
The woman is “of Syrian nationality,” the private NTV television quoted the police as saying. She reportedly admitted to having received an order from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
Video footage obtained by Reuters showed the moment the blast occurred at 4.13 p.m. (1313 GMT), sending debris into the air and leaving several people lying on the ground, while others fled the scene.
“Efforts to defeat Turkey and the Turkish people through terrorism will fail today just as they did yesterday and as they will again tomorrow,” Erdogan told a news conference in Istanbul.
“Our people can rest assured that the culprits behind the attack will be punished as they deserve,” he said, adding that initial information suggested “a woman played a part” in it.
“It would be wrong to say this is undoubtedly a terrorist attack but the initial developments and initial intelligence from my governor is that it smells like terrorism,” he added.
Reuters footage showed people attending to victims after the blast, and later investigators in white outfits collecting material from the scene, where pieces of a concrete planter were scattered on the avenue.
“When I heard the explosion, I was petrified, people froze, looking at each other. Then people started running away. What else can you do,” said Mehmet Akus, 45, a worker in a restaurant on Istiklal.
“My relatives called me, they know I work on Istiklal. I reassured them,” he told Reuters.
A helicopter flew above the scene and several ambulances were parked in nearby Taksim Square. The Turkish Red Crescent said blood was being transferred to nearby hospitals.
If confirmed, it would be the first major bomb blast in Istanbul in several years.
Twin bombings outside an Istanbul soccer stadium in December 2016 killed 38 people and wounded 155 in an attack claimed by an offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Condemnations of the attack and condolences for the victims rolled in from several countries including Greece, Egypt, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan.
