Istanbul updates: Turkey’s Erdogan says six killed in explosion

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has called the explosion “shocking”.

“Shocking images from Istanbul. My thoughts and deepest condolences to all those affected & to the Turkish people. #NATO stands in solidarity with our Ally Turkiye,” he said on Twitter.

Shocking images from #Istanbul. My thoughts and deepest condolences to all those affected & to the Turkish people. #NATO stands in solidarity with our Ally #Türkiye.

— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) November 13, 2022

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has said that he is “deeply shocked by the news of today’s explosion in the heart of Istanbul”.

“Our thoughts are with the victims, and with all those who have lost their loved ones. We stand with Turkiye,” he said on Twitter.

A witness, speaking to Al Jazeera, said she thought the sound of the explosion had come from a construction site.

The explosion occurred next to a Mango clothing store on Istiklal avenue.

“I was at Mango two hours beforehand. Then we went to [the adjacent neighbourhood of] Cihangir and heard the sound of an explosion while eating and did not want to think that it was a bomb,” Asena Hayal told Al Jazeera.

“We thought something fell from a construction site but then realised there is no construction on Sundays. Later the news arrived indicating that it was an explosion,” Hayal said.

Reporting by Paul Benjamin Osterlund in Istanbul.

Some of the wounded in the blast have been taken to the Okmeydani state hospital in the neighbouring district of Sisli, according to news reports.

At 8pm (17:00 GMT), there were numerous police officers on guard at the entrance to the hospital’s emergency room, but they declined to provide any information, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent.

As of 8:45pm, all entrances to Istiklal avenue had been blocked off by police as an investigation into the explosion was ongoing.

There were large numbers of police at the main entrance to the avenue and armoured vehicles parked in nearby Taksim Square. The normally buzzing backstreets around Istiklal were eerily silent and empty. Many bars, restaurants, and cafes had closed early.

Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay has said that six people were killed in the explosion in Istanbul – four of them at the scene – and 81 others were injured, with two in critical condition.

Oktay said the incident is considered a “terrorist act”, adding that a female attacker detonated the bomb that caused the blast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that he is “deeply saddened” by the news of the explosion in Turkey, and has extended condolences to the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

“The pain of the friendly Turkish people is our pain,” Zelenkskyy added in a tweet.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istiklal avenue, said that three suspects were reportedly involved in the blast.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “mentioned that the main suspect [in the incident] is a female,” Koseoglu said, adding that officials believe that she is a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Koseoglu said the suspect reportedly dropped a bag of explosives in the middle of the street packed with civilians, and it detonated a few minutes after she left.

“I learned from my sources that the other two suspects are two very young men who were born after 2000,” she also said.

A witness to the explosion in Istanbul’s Istiklal avenue spoke to the AFP news agency about the moments of panic during the incident.

“I was 50-55 metres [164-180 feet] away. Suddenly there was the noise of an explosion. I saw three or four people on the ground,” witness Cemal Denizci, 57, said.

“People were running in panic. The noise was huge. There was black smoke,” he said.

Sunday’s blast is the first such incident in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, in several years.

Between 2015 and 2017, Turkey was hit by a string of deadly bombings by ISIL (ISIS) and outlawed Kurdish groups.

Here is a timeline of blasts in Turkey in recent years.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the explosion on Istanbul’s Istiklal street.

“I have learned with deep anguish about the explosion at Istiklal Avenue in the heart of Istanbul,” Sharif said on Twitter.

“Government and the people of Pakistan express deepest condolences to the brotherly people of Turkiye at the loss of precious lives and send prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured.”

Murat Aslan, a security analyst, told Al Jazeera that the place where the attack took place in Istanbul is a highly crowded civilian area with maximum security precautions.

“The police in general are on the highest level in this area,” he said.

“If you have a bag and look like a suspected individual, police may stop you as there are many police officers around there,” he said.

“But if there is no clue that you are a terrorist … nobody will stop you, because this is a civilian street and police would not stop everybody and check the bags …

“There are a lot of security cameras in the area,” Aslan noted. “I think the police will identify exactly who did this and how he or she did this if it is a terror attack.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the explosion in Istanbul’s Istiklal street was caused by a “bomb attack”, adding that six people died in the incident.

Speaking before his departure to the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia on Sunday, Erdogan said the explosion was a “treacherous attack” and its perpetrators would be punished.

Another 53 were wounded, according to information Erdogan received from the Istanbul governor.

An explosion that ripped through the heart of Istanbul has left at least four people dead and 38 others wounded, according to the city governor.

The explosion – the cause of which is yet unknown – occurred at 4:20pm local time (13:20 GMT), Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a tweet.

Istiklal avenue is a crowded thoroughfare popular with tourists and locals and lined by shops and restaurants.

A video posted online shows flames erupting and a loud bang, as pedestrians turn and run away.

Other footage shows ambulances, fire trucks and police at the scene. Social media users said shops were shuttered and the avenue closed down.

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said that attacks have not taken place in Turkey for the last several years.

“The scenes we are seeing in Istanbul’s Istiklal street right now totally remind us what happened in various tourist areas of Istanbul a couple of years ago as well as [in] Turkey’s big cities, including the capital Ankara,” she said.

“These kinds of attacks have been perpetrated by mainly two organisations in the past: the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the PKK, and ISIL (ISIS),” she said, adding that no group has yet claimed responsibility for the latest incident.

At least four people have been killed and several others injured after an explosion hit Istanbul’s Istiklal street on Sunday, according to the Turkish media.

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya earlier tweeted that the explosion occurred at about 4:20pm (13:20 GMT).

Broadcaster CNN Turk said 11 people were injured.

The cause of the explosion was not clear.