The Minister of the Interior of Turkey, Suleyman Soylu, said in the early hours of Monday (14), still Sunday night (13) in Brazil, that a person suspected of having left a bomb on Istiklal Avenue, in Istanbul, was detained. The information was anticipated by the account of the state agency Anadolu on Twitter.
The case, on one of the most popular and busiest roads in the Turkish city, left at least six people dead and 81 injured, two of them in critical condition.
The cause of the incident remains unclear, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, shortly before leaving for Indonesia to attend the G20 summit, said he saw signs of terrorism. If this hypothesis is confirmed, this will be the case of the deadliest type in at least five years in the country.
“It would be wrong to say that this is undoubtedly a terrorist attack, but initial investigations show us that it smacks of terrorism. Efforts to dominate Turkey will not achieve their objective,” he said, calling the episode a treacherous attack.
So far, no group has claimed the action.
Earlier, at the same Anadolu, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that a woman sat on a bench for 40 minutes next to a bag and left just minutes before an alleged bomb exploded, which would indicate the use of an explosive. with timer or detonated remotely. This line of investigation also points out that the artifact had nails, to increase the impact of the explosion.
The explosion took place, according to video obtained by the Reuters news agency, at 16:13 local time (10:13 GMT), in the district of Beyoglu. Emergency teams, including members of Afad, the disaster and emergency management group linked to the Ministry of the Interior, were then dispatched to the scene.
The case shakes an important sector of the Turkish economy, tourism, which is trying to recover from the effects of restrictions imposed to control the pandemic.
Popular with locals and tourists alike, Istiklal (Independence) Avenue, just under 2 kilometers long, is next to Taksim Square, which houses neoclassical arcades with a variety of shops, restaurants, patisseries and pubs. Many of the protests against the government are also concentrated there.
About 3 million people pass through the pedestrian-only road, which shares space with a tram line. The street is also home to the largest Roman Catholic church in Istanbul, St. Antoine. The explosion took place in front of a clothing store.
According to The New York Times, the movement on Sunday was greater because at night there would be a football match nearby – the game was cancelled.
“I thought it was a gas explosion,” broker Serhat Sen, who was passing through the area on a bicycle, told the NYT. “If I had been going faster, I would have been hit.” Another witness, Cemal Denizci, told AFP that he saw three or four people lying on the ground. “Everyone ran in panic, the noise was huge, almost deafening, and there was black smoke.”
Police cordoned off the site amid fears of a second explosion. In the neighboring district of Galata, many stores have also closed their doors.
In 2016, four tourists died and around 36 people were injured after a suicide bombing on the same road. That year was marked by an increase in attacks of this type in different parts of the Middle Eastern country carried out by radical Kurdish groups and militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group – at least 286 people died.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
