The Istanbul Police Department said footage from around 1,200 security cameras was examined and 21 locations were raided. At least 46 other people were also detained for questioning.
A total of six people were killed and 81 injured in Sunday’s blast on Istiklal Avenue, a popular street lined with shops and restaurants that leads to the iconic Taksim Square. The suspect allegedly left the scene in a taxi after leaving TNT-type explosives on the busy avenue, police said.

Kurdish fighters deny involvement

Police said the suspect told them during questioning that she had been trained as a “special intelligence service” by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, as well as the Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party and its armed wing. He entered Turkey illegally through the Syrian border town of Afrin, police said. Authorities had initially arrested more than 20 suspects after the blast, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said earlier Monday.
Soylou said initial findings indicated that Kurdish fighters were responsible for the deadly blast. “The person who planted the bomb has been arrested,” he said in a statement carried by the official Anadolu Agency and local television stations. “According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organization is responsible.”
Kurdish fighters categorically denied any connection to the bombing. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party denied involvement in a statement, saying it did not target civilians. In Syria, the main Kurdish militia group, the People’s Defense Units, denied any connection to the suspect. The group claimed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was trying to drum up international support for his plans to launch a new invasion of northern Syria ahead of elections next year.
The Turkish interior minister also accused Kurdish forces that control most of northeastern Syria, which Ankara considers terrorists, of being behind the attack.
“We believe that the order for the attack was given by Kobani,” he added. Kobani remained famous for the 2015 battle that allowed Kurdish forces to push back the so-called Islamic State (IS). The city is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the People’s Protection Units (YPG) — allied to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — are a major component.

An explosion marks a busy shopping area

Hours after the explosion on Sunday afternoon, Vice President Fuat Oktai visited the site to give the latest tally of the dead and injured and promised to resolve the matter “very soon”. The area, in the Beyoglu district of Turkey’s largest city, was packed as usual over the weekend with shoppers, tourists and families. Video obtained by Reuters shows the moment the explosion occurred at 4:13 p.m. local time (2:13 p.m. CET), sending debris into the air and leaving several people lying on the ground while others stumbled. Hundreds of people fled the historic Istiklal Avenue after the explosion as ambulances and police rushed in. Authorities later said a government ministry employee and his daughter were among the dead. Five people are in intensive care at the hospital, two of them in critical condition. No one has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Erdogan: “It smells like terrorism”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blast a “treasonous attack” and said the perpetrators would be punished. “Efforts to defeat Turkey and the Turkish people through terrorism will fail today as they did yesterday and as they will fail tomorrow,” the president told a news conference before flying to Indonesia for the Group of 20 summit. “Our people can be sure that the guilty … will be punished as they deserve,” he said, adding that initial information suggested that “a woman played a role” in this. “It would be wrong to say that this is undoubtedly a terrorist attack, but the initial developments and the initial information from my governor is that it smacks of terrorism,” he added. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, according to state-run Anadolu, said a woman had been sitting on a bench for more than 40 minutes before leaving minutes before the explosion, suggesting there was a bomb that was timed to explode or detonated remotely. The 23-year-old female suspect was arrested in an overnight raid by anti-terrorist police in the Kucukcekmece district. Turkish authorities say they also discovered a large amount of euros and gold coins, as well as a gun and ammunition. Sunday’s blast was a shocking reminder of the security concerns that dogged the Turkish population during years when such attacks were commonplace. The country was hit by a series of bombings between 2015 and 2017, some by the Islamic State group, others by Kurdish fighters seeking increased autonomy or independence. Twin bombings outside an Istanbul football stadium in December 2016 killed 38 people and injured 155 others. An offshoot of the PKK, which has been designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, claimed responsibility for the attack. Many countries condemned the attack and offered condolences to the victims. On Twitter, European Council President Charles Michel sent his condolences to the victims following the “terrible news”. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also sent his “thoughts and deepest condolences to all those affected and to the Turkish people.”