Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Istanbul Besiktas: Stadium bomb blasts kill at least 13 people - reports


  • Dec 10, 2016  22H:27  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME
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  • From the sectionEurope
Media captionAmbulances and police were seen rushing to Besiktas sports stadium
by Alara Berrak and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Istanbul
Two explosions near a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, have killed at least 13 people and injured others, reports say.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said it was thought a car bomb had specifically targeted riot police.
Witnesses heard gunfire after the attack, and ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the scene.
Turkey has seen a recent spate of militant attacks in major cities that have left dozens of people dead.
No group has said it was behind the attack but a wave of bombings in Turkey this year has been carried out by Kurdish militants and so-called Islamic State (IS), the BBC's Turkey correspondent, Mark Lowen, reports.
The fact that police appear to have been hit will focus suspicion on Kurdish guerrilla groups, who have mainly targeted the security forces, he adds.
Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan wrote on Twitter that it was a terror attack.

Deadly attacks in Turkey this year

Scene of explosion in Ankara's central Kizilay district on 13 March 2016Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
20 August: Bomb attack on wedding party in Gaziantep kills at least 30 people, IS suspected
30 July: 35 Kurdish fighters who try to storm a military base are killed by the Turkish army
29 June: A gun and bomb attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul kills 41 people, in an attack blamed on IS militants
13 March: 37 people are killed by Kurdish militants in a suicide car bombing in Ankara
17 February: 28 people die in an attack on a military convoy in Ankara

It happened two hours after a football match at the Vodafone Arena between Besiktas and Bursaspor, two of Turkey's top teams, ended.
Local media reported that fans had already dispersed. Bursaspor posted on Twitter that none of its fan groups knew of any injured fans.
Mr Soylu said: "It is thought to be a car bomb at a point where our special forces police were located, right after the match at the exit where Bursaspor fans exited, after the fans had left."
Photographs posted on Instagram after the explosion showed helmets strewn on a road and damaged vehicles.
A police helicopter circled overhead and windows in nearby buildings were blown out by the force of the blasts.
Smoke rising from some charred metal on the road, with police in the background, 10 December 2016Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionThe attack appears to have targeted riot police
Turkish policemen at the site of an explosion in central Istanbul, Turkey, December 10, 2016.Image copyrightREUTERS
Image captionPhotographs have started to emerge of police helping their injured colleagues

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