An explosion rocked a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul on Sunday afternoon, with the Turkish president calling the incident a “bomb attack” and saying it “reeks of terrorism”. At least 81 were injured and police say a woman may be behind the blast. Among those who died were Yusuf Meydan and his young daughter Ecrin. Mr. Meydan worked for Turkey’s Ministry of Family and Social Services. The department’s minister, Derya Yanik, said: “I condemn this treacherous attack that killed a father and his daughter. “As a state, we stand by the families of our brothers and sisters who lost their lives and our wounded with all our strength. No evil focus will be able to disrupt our unity and solidarity.” Earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said those behind the terror attacks “will fail today as they did yesterday and as they will fail again tomorrow”. “Our people can rest assured that the culprits behind the attack will be punished as they deserve,” he said. He added that initial information suggested that “a woman played a role” in the attack. “It would be wrong to say that this is undoubtedly a terrorist attack, but the initial developments and the initial information from my commander is that it smacks of terrorism.” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said detectives were looking for a woman near the site of the explosion. “We were told that a woman appears to be sitting on one of the benches there for a certain period of time, for more than 40 minutes, then she gets up, and then a minute to two minutes after she gets up, an explosion happens,” he said. Image: Ambulances arrive near the scene in central Istanbul’s Taksim district “I was petrified” Footage taken moments after the explosion shows panicked people running from the scene. “When I heard the explosion, I was petrified, people froze, looking at each other. Then people started running away. What else can you do,” said restaurant worker Mehmet Akous. “My relatives called me, they know I work in Istiklal. I reassured them,” he added. Image: People run away from the explosion Image: Members of the security forces stand near the scene Five prosecutors have been assigned to investigate the explosion, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Image: Members of the security forces stand in Taksim Square A broadcast ban was imposed Turkey’s RTUK regulator imposed a broadcast ban on coverage of the explosion about an hour after the explosion. It prevents broadcasters from showing video from the time of the explosion or its aftermath. Istiklal Avenue is a pedestrian street popular with tourists and locals and is lined with shops and restaurants. Turkey suffered several deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017 by Islamic State and outlaw Kurdish groups.
