At least
ten people have been killed and 15 injured after a suspected suicide
bomb explosion ripped through the main tourist district of Istanbul.
The
blast rocked the Sultanahmet neighbourhood, home to the city's biggest
concentration of monuments and is visited by thousands of tourists a
day.
Witnesses
said the explosion shook buildings and could be heard in neighbouring
districts, while pictures showed corpses strewn across a square.
At least six Germans, one Norwegian and a Peruvian were among the wounded, Turkey's Dogan news agency reported.
Police
cordoned off the area to shocked passers-by and tourists and the nearby
tram service has been halted amid fears of a second blast.
Ambulances
ferried the injured away from the scene, which is home to world-famous
sites including the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.
A German
tourist named Caroline said: 'The explosion was so loud, the ground
shook. There was a very heavy smell that burned my nose.
'I
started running away with my daughter. We went into a nearby building
and stayed there for half an hour. It was really scary.'
Erdem Koroglu, who was working at a nearby office, told NTV television he saw several people lying on the ground.
'It was difficult to say who was alive or dead,' he said. 'Buildings rattled from the force of the explosion.'
Another witness said: 'The explosion was very loud. We shook a lot. We ran out and saw body parts.'
Source: Dailymail
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