Deadly blast in Istanbul kills 11, wounds dozens

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday early morning, at least 11 people were killed and dozens were injured in a deadly explosion near the main tourist district in the European side of the city of Istanbul.

Kurdistan24 news team immediately appeared at the site and captured videos and photos and obtained initial information on the blast.

A car bomb targeted a police vehicle in the Beyazit Vezneciler district of the city in the early morning, killing 7 civilians and 4 policemen and wounding at least 36 people.

Several ambulances were immediately deployed to the site and the injured were transferred to the nearest hospitals.

The Turkish police set up a security cordon around the blast site, prevented the media from approaching it, and evacuated the buildings nearby.

Up to the present moment, no group has claimed the responsibility for the blast.

The Turkish state-run press agency Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Tuesday that four people were detained in relation to the morning blast, but no results have been declared yet.

Later in the evening, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited a group of the wounded at a hospital.

[President Erdogan visits wounded at Haseki Training and Research Hospital after blast killing seven police officers and four civilians, in Beyazit Vezneciler district, Istanbul, Turkey on June 07, 2016. (Photo: AA)]

After the visit, he vowed that Turkey’s fight against terrorism will not stop and he described the attack on the policemen as "unforgivable." 

"The mission of our soldiers, our police, and our city guards is to protect our lives and our property. It is unacceptable that these people are targeted. We will continue our fight against terrorism fearlessly," Erdogan told reporters after the visit.

Turkey has been facing growing adverse reaction from the conflict in Syria since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed last July.

This year, a series of suicide bombings hit Turkey, including two in its largest city Istanbul, blamed on IS, and two in the capital Ankara which were claimed by Kurdish groups, in addition to a series of blasts in the mainly Kurdish southeastern areas of the country.

Editing by Ava Homa