A young girl and her father are among at least six people who have died in a terrorist attack in Istanbul.
An explosion rocked a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul on Sunday afternoon, with the President of Turkey calling the incident a “bombing” and saying it “smells like terrorism”. “.
At least 81 people were injured and police say a woman may have been behind the blast.
Among the dead were Yusuf Meydan and his young daughter Ecrin.
Turkey’s minister of family and social services, Derya Yanik, said: “I curse this malicious attack that killed a father and his daughter.
“As the state, we stand with the families of our brothers and sisters who have lost their lives and those who have been wounded with all our might. No bad focus can break. our solidarity and solidarity.”
Earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said those behind the terrorist attacks “will fail today as yesterday and they will fail again tomorrow”.
“Our people can rest assured that the perpetrators behind the attack will be punished as they deserve,” he said.
He added that initial information suggested that “a woman played some role” in the attack.
“It would be wrong to say this was definitely a terrorist attack but the initial developments and initial intelligence from my governor is that it smells like terrorism.”
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said detectives were looking for a woman seen near the scene of the explosion.
“We were told that a woman was seen sitting on one of the couches there for a certain amount of time, over 40 minutes, then she got up, and after a minute to two minutes after waking up, an explosion happened,” he said.
An ambulance approaches the scene in the Taksim area of central Istanbul
‘I was stunned’
Footage taken moments after the explosion showed panicked people running from the scene.
“When I heard the explosion, I was petrified, everyone was stunned, looked at each other. Then people started running. What else can you do,” restaurant employee Mehmet Akus said.
“My relatives called me, they knew I worked on Istiklal. I reassured them,” he added.
Everyone runs away from the explosion
Members of the security forces standing near the scene
State news agency Anadolu said five prosecutors had been appointed to investigate the blast.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Members of the security forces stand on Taksim . square
Broadcast ban has been applied
Turkey’s regulator RTUK imposed a broadcast ban on coverage of the explosion about an hour after it happened. It prevents broadcasters from showing video of the moment of the explosion or its aftermath.
Istiklal Avenue is a pedestrian street popular with tourists and locals and has many shops and restaurants.
Turkey suffered several deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017 by the Islamic State and outlawed Kurdish groups.
