At Least 10 People Killed In Istanbul Bombing

• The blast took place in the Sultanahmet district — an area popular with tourists visiting the Turkish city's Blue Mosque. All the people killed were foreigners, Turkey's prime minister said.
• Some 15 people were wounded, according to the Istanbul governor's office.
• The Turkish prime minister said ISIS were behind the blast.
• Earlier, the deputy prime minister said a 28-year-old Syrian national carried out the attack.
• Although Turkey has been plagued by violence in recent months, this attack is one of the first to target an area frequented by foreigners.

An explosion ripped through the heart of Istanbul on Tuesday morning — marking a potentially major escalation of the violence plaguing Turkey.

The Istanbul governor’s office has reported at least 10 people killed and 15 people wounded, according to the Associated Press.

On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that ISIS was behind the attack, AP said. Earlier, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus earlier said the bomber was a 28-year-old Syrian. Davutoglu said that all the people killed in the attack were foreigners, according to local reports.

In a live television address Tuesday morning, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that the blast was a terror attack, Reuters and CNN reported.

The Turkish state-affiliated Andalou Agency reported that Davutoglu had called German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday to offer his condolences after it was reported many of the victims were German.

German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, condemned the “barbaric and cowardly act” saying, “we can’t exclude that Germans are among the dead.”

 

FM #Steinmeier on #Istanbul attack: „We mourn the victims of this murderous attack. We can’t exclude that Germans are among the dead.“ 2/3

— GermanForeignOffice 

Emergency services stand near casualties from the blast in Sultanahmet. Reuters/Kemal Aslan

But none have targeted sites frequented by foreigners — and an attack of such magnitude in a central and well-known tourist area of Istanbul would be a major blow for the country.

Internationally, news of the blast around Turkey’s beloved tourist attractions was already resonating. “I was there a month ago,” wrote one woman on Twitter, posting a photo of the Hagia Sophia with its minarets rising into a clear blue sky. “We kept remarking about how we felt so safe.”

Images and clips posted on Twitter and Instagram purport to show injured or dead people lying on the ground, and a police car on its side in the main square in the area.

İstanbul Sultanahmet'te meydana gelen patlama sonrası olay yerine gitmekte olan bir polis aracı kaza yaptı: https://t.co/wWjQQ4zi1w

— 140journos (@140journos)

Police cordoned off the scene, keeping the public away from any potential second blasts.

 

Lugar de la explosión en Sultanahmet. Todo acordonado.