A bomb has ripped through a bus carrying riot police near Istanbul's top tourist spots killing 11 people.
The blast happened during rush hour in the Turkish city killing seven officers and four civilians and comes after a string of attacks in the country.The
bomb targeted a service shuttle bus carrying officers from
Istanbul's
anti-riot police as it was passing through the central Beyazit district.
The city's
governor Vasip Sahin also said in a live statement on Turkish TV that 36
people were wounded, three of them seriously.
Reports
said the explosion took place close to the Vezneciler metro station,
which is within walking distance of some of the city's main tourist
sites including the famed Suleymaniye Mosque.
Pictures
showed the bomb had turned the police vehicle into mangled wreckage and
that nearby shops had their front windows smashed out by the force of
the blast with cars parked in the vicinity also damaged.
Television
pictures showed bomb disposal experts examining the scene in case of a
second unexploded bomb and reports said at least one controlled
explosion was carried out.
Scheduled examinations at Istanbul University - which lies close to the scene of the blast - have been cancelled.
Reports said that shots were heard and pictures showed police in bullet proof vests brandishing their weapons.
The
blast took place opposite an upscale hotel favoured by foreign
tourists, the Celal Aga Konagi Hotel, a converted Ottoman mansion.
However, there has been no indication of who had carried out the attack.
Since
the start of the year, Turkey has been hit by a sequence of attacks
that have rattled citizens and also caused tourism to plummet.
Two
separate blasts in Ankara claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
(TAK) - a radical splinter group of the better-known outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) - earlier this year claimed dozens of lives.
Concerned cafe owners look on after the windows of their shop were smashed in the bomb targeting a police bus
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