At least 25 people were killed and 390 injured on Thursday in huge explosions that rocked Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, badly damaging the British consulate and two offices of the HSBC bank, Turkish media reported.
Turkey’s Justice Minister, Cemil Cicek, said the bomb attacks were the result of suicide car bombs.
The television chain NTV and the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported a total of five explosions and NTV footage showed pools of blood, wrecked cars and streets littered with glass from shattered windows.
An AFP reporter on the scene said two annexes to the consulate had been reduced to rubble and several cars destroyed by the explosion.
“There is debris everywhere. Windows have been blown out all along the street. People are out on the street, holding their heads in their hands, crying, trying to phone relatives. There are traces of blood on the street,” he said.
“Three or four” employees of the British consulate general were missing, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
An unidentified caller claimed responsibility for the two explosions in Istanbul on behalf of the al-Qaeda terror network and the Turkish underground Islamist group IBDA-C, Anatolia news agency said.
The explosions, which came only five days after suicide bombers killed 25 people and injured more than 300 at two synagogues in Istanbul, had an immediate impact on European stock markets.
Reversing early gains, the British FTSE 100 dropped 0,42% to 4 309,3 points, while the German DAX 30 lost 0,90% to 3 619,4 points and the French CAC 40 fell 0,68% to 3 320.7 points.
“The constant threat of global terrorism is always at the back of people’s minds. We saw the effect it had after September 11 and I guess people become extremely nervous during these types of events,” Henk Potts, analyst at Barclays Stockbrokers, said.
“It just reminds people that if we do get further problems of terrorism around the world that will have a very negative effect on sentiment and on the markets.”
On Wednesday, five people were charged with “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order by the use of force” after the synagogue attacks.
A sixth person was charged with “aiding a terrorist organisation” that was not specified, Anatolia agency said.
Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told the pro-government daily Yeni Safak that “it has been determined that Turks were used as sub-contractors in this incident, which was organised by foreign groups associated to al-Qaeda”.
Police were reportedly questioning about 30 people in connection with the attacks, including the owner of one of the trucks used. — Sapa-AFP
Turkey blasts: Claims of al-Qaeda