11 were dead and 36 injured after bomb hit passing police shuttle in Beyazit district, downtown Istanbul. The bomb attack targeting a police vehicle in central Istanbul, the Turkish city’s governor said. Seven of the dead were police officers, and three of the injured were in a critical condition.
The blast occurred at a busy junction in the Beyazit district, near an Istanbul University building, and was caused by a bomb placed inside a car that was detonated as the police vehicle passed by, Vasip Şahin said, as quoted by The Guardian.
The police bus was overturned by the force of the blast, which also damaged nearby buildings and cars. A hotel’s entrance appeared gutted and windows had been blown out.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, condemned the attack, which occurred on the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. “They [the attackers] are cold-heartedly exploding bombs on a Ramadan day,” he said in a television interview.
The country is on high security alert after two terror attacks this year blamed on Islamic State jihadis, and twin attacks in Ankara that killed dozens and were claimed by Kurdish militants.