Deadly Explosion Hits Busy Istanbul Pedestrian Street

ISTANBUL—A bomb blast ripped through a busy pedestrian street in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday afternoon, killing at least six people and wounding 81 others, Turkish officials said.

The blast occurred just after 4 p.m. on Istiklal, a vast canyon of a street lined with restaurants and shops on Istanbul’s European side, sending crowds of tourists running for their lives. Sirens could be heard wailing in the aftermath of the explosion.

Police, some in riot gear, blocked off the street. Armoured vehicles rumbled along the largely empty avenue, which would normally be packed with shoppers and tourists on a warm Sunday afternoon. A police helicopter roared overhead.

Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay, speaking on live television, said a female assailant had detonated a bomb in what he described as an act of terror.

“Attempts to submit Turkey and Turkish people by acts of terrorism are doomed to fail today as they were in the past,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a news conference before his departure for the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia. “Our nation shall rest assured that the perpetrators of the incident on Istiklal street will be punished as befitting.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The bombing was the first such attack in years in Turkey, which was the target of a catastrophic series of gun and bomb attacks by Islamic State from 2015 to 2017. Extremist militants attacked Istanbul’s main international airport, tourist areas and a nightclub in an era of violence and instability resulting from the wars in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

That previous series of attacks, along with a failed military coup attempt in 2016, badly hurt Turkey’s tourist industry and devastated the country’s economy. The country has also waged a decades long struggle with Kurdish militants who have carried out bombings primarily targeting the country’s security services.

People leave the area after an explosion on Istanbul's popular pedestrian street Istiklal [Can Ozer/AP Photo]