|
Bombs wound 27 people including 10 British tourists in Turkey |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Reuters
|
|
Monday, 28 August 2006 04:32 |
|
Four separate bombs at a popular Turkish coastal resort and in the country's largest city Istanbul wounded at least 27 people, including 10 British tourists, authorities said on Monday.
Ten Britons and 11 Turks were wounded when their minibus blew up on one of the main streets of Marmaris, a busy tourist town on the Mediterranean coast. The British Foreign Office said three of the Britons were in intensive care.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
A Marmaris police official, who declined to be named, told Reuters 21 people were injured in Marmaris, including 16 people inside the minibus. Five others were hurt by two percussion bombs -- all three explosions happened within 15 minutes.
"There were three bombs ... Two of them were not important, they were percussion bombs," he said, adding the outlawed separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was suspected of carrying out the attacks.
The bombs in Marmaris exploded between midnight and 0015 local time (10:15 p.m. British time) while the Istanbul blast, which injured six people, took place at 9:30 pm local time.
Marmaris is a coastal resort popular with west European and Russian tourists as well as Turks -- for many the last weekend of their annual summer holiday.
"I can confirm that there were three explosions (in Marmaris) but the (British) injuries all came from the first explosion," said a British embassy spokeswoman in Ankara.
Police explosives experts wearing white suits conducted investigations at the blast sites in Marmaris.
Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said six people had been injured when a device exploded near a school in Istanbul's Bagcilar district.
"They left a package on a road against the garden wall... At around 2130 (7:30 British time) it exploded and six citizens were injured," Cerrah told state-run Anatolian news agency, but did not provide further details.
BURNS, LACERATIONS
"We have four British casualties. All four have burns and lacerations from the explosion in the lower extremities," said Suzanne Poyraz, a spokeswoman at Caria private hospital in Marmaris. Others had been taken to other hospitals.
"None of them are serious ... they're quite badly shocked."
Of the 21 casualties in Marmaris, 9 have so far been discharged from hospital, the local governor told Anatolian.
"With the efforts of our security forces we will capture those behind the blasts as soon as possible and bring them to account," said Governor Temel Kocaklar.
Kurdish separatists, leftists and Islamic militants have
carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past. The tourist industry is a powerful motor of the Turkish economy, hoping to reach $20 billion in revenues and 26 million visitors this year.
The blasts came two days after two bombs exploded in the southern Turkish city of Adana, injuring four people.
The PKK, which launched a separatist campaign in 1984, and other militant groups have been blamed or claimed responsibility for similar blasts in the past.
Turkey, like the United States and European Union, considers the PKK a terrorist organisation and blames it for the deaths of more than 30,000 people.
Ankara has recently increased its troop presence in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where security forces are battling PKK guerrillas. |