Six dead in Istanbul blast

Six people were killed and 81 others wounded on Sunday when an explosion rocked a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul in what Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called a bomb attack that “smells like terrorism,” Reuters reported.

Hundreds of people fled the historic Istiklal Avenue after the blast, as ambulances and police raced in.

The area, in the Beyoglu district of Turkey’s largest city, had been crowded as usual at the weekend with shoppers, tourists and families.

Video footage obtained by Reuters showed the moment the explosion occurred at 4.13 p.m. (1313 GMT), sending debris into the air and leaving several people lying on the ground, while others stumbled away.

Hours after the explosion, Vice President Fuat Oktay visited the site to give the latest death and injury toll, and promised to resolve the matter “very soon.”

Authorities later said a government ministry worker and his daughter were among the dead. Five people were in intensive care in hospital, two of them in a critical condition.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Istanbul and other Turkish cities have been targeted in the past by Kurdish separatists, militants and other groups, including in a series of attacks in 2015 and 2016.