A suicide bomb went has exploded at the centre of Istanbul on Sunday injuring 32 people in an apparent attack on Turkish Police forces.

Video Suicide bomb at Taksim Square, Istanbul.
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A total of 17 civilians were reported injured while 15 of the injured were members of the Turkish police force. Two of the injured police officers were reported to be in critical condition.

The blast went off at 10.30am during celebrations of the 87th anniversary of the Turkish Republic declared in 1923 after the end of World War I Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The celebrations were planned to take place on Friday 29th October, but due to bad weather the celebrations were postponed to Sunday.

Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin said on Sunday that a man had approached the police check point with up to a dozen of police buses apparently trying to enter one of them before detonating the bomb.

“The explosion occurred at a time of celebration where the potential presence of children were at the maximum, what were they trying to gain from this?“ said one CHP (Republican People’s Party ) MP.

The explosion took place approximately 30 meters away from the Taksim Square monument of independence.

No group has yet taken responsibility for the attack though a two-month-old ceasefire with separatist rebel group Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was due to end on Sunday 31st October.

The PKK and extreme left-wing groups have carried out attacks mainly involving explosive devices in the past in Taksim Square and parts of Istanbul in the past.

“There was a second bomber”

While the suicide bomb caused wide panic in the area, one man who was part of a dance group performing in the celebrations on Sunday has said “There was a second bomber” who had argued with the police before the bomb had gone off.

According to the witness there was a second man who he thought was also a suicide bomber who had disappeared after the panic which ensued the explosion.

Gunfire was heard after the explosion which was later confirmed to be from police forces to warn off people and other possible suicide bombers.

“American citizens were warned”

Another very controversial accusation came from organizer Özcan Işık who said, many American citizens had cancelled reservations to the Halloween Party in Taksim Istanbul on Saturday night.

Organizer Özcan Işık said “A customer called my firm to organize a Halloween party on Saturday in which 30 people were going to attend.

“However, the same woman then called back saying there was 12 cancelations from the Party goers.
“Our customer told me that the American Embassy had called American citizens to warn them that ‘a bomb might go off in Taksim’.”

The accusations of Özcan Işık came as a big shock because no such warnings had been made to the Turkish public, while many of the main stream news agencies did not write about the end of the PKK ceasefire on 31st October.

Video panic caused bu suicide explosion in Turkey’s Taksim Square in Istanbul
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