A bicycle bomb detonated in a market in the Turkish port of Izmir on Saturday, injuring 12 people, two of them seriously, police said.
The blast came one day before a planned anti-government rally in Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, amid rising political tensions ahead of a July general election.
”The bomb exploded on a bicycle… The injured are being treated at two local hospitals,” a police spokesperson told Reuters.
The explosion occurred early in the morning when there were relatively few people in the area, the spokesperson said. Most of the injured were tradespeople working at the market, in the Bornova district of the city.
A range of militant groups operate in Turkey, including Kurdish separatists, radical Islamists and far-left activists.
Kurdish militants have in the past carried out small attacks in the Izmir area, which is home to a large Kurdish population and also a major port of entry for European tourists visiting Turkey’s Aegean coast.
The Kurdish militants have pledged in the past to disrupt Turkey’s highly lucrative tourist industry.
Political tensions are running especially high in Turkey after the Islamist-rooted government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan clashed with the country’s secular elite, including army generals, over a presidential election in Parliament.
Public rallies, a court ruling and a strong statement from the army General Staff forced the government to withdraw its presidential candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, an ex-Islamist, and call an early parliamentary election for July.
Sunday’s rally, which organisers say could draw up to two million people, is aimed at putting further pressure on Erdogan’s government as Turkey gears up for the election.
Secularist opponents of the government say Erdogan and Gul want to undermine Turkey’s strict separation of state and religion. They strongly deny the claim. – Reuters