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Blasts in Ankara, Turkish Capital, Kill at Least 30 Blasts in Ankara, Turkish Capital, Kill at Least 30
(about 1 hour later)
ISTANBUL — At least 30 people were killed Saturday when two explosions struck near a central train station in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the Turkish Interior Ministry said in a statement. ISTANBUL — ISTANBUL— At least 30 people were killed Saturday when two explosions struck near a central train station in the Turkish capital, Ankara, the Turkish Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said at least 126 people had been wounded. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear, but the semiofficial Anadolu news agency, citing local sources, said suicide bombers were thought to have been responsible. The blasts, which struck as people gathered for a planned peace demonstration to protest the conflict between Kurdish militants and the Turkish state in the southeast, wounded at least 126 people, the ministry said. The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear, but Turkish authorities are investigating claims that it was a terrorist attack carried out by a suicide bomber.
A Turkish official reached by telephone said the incident was being investigated. An eyewitness, who watched the incident unfold from a distance, said two explosions took place seconds apart from one another.
The explosion took place before a planned demonstration against the conflict between Kurdish militants and the government in Turkey’s southeast. Television footage showed several bodies scattered in the road and people tending to the wounded. “After the first explosion I just ran,” the eyewitness, Oya Barlas, said by phone. “When I went back to help there were bodies on the floor and blood splattered everywhere”
A video circulating on social media showed a group of young demonstrators holding hands and chanting “ This square, this bloody square,” before a big blast is seen in the background, sending the crowd running toward the train station.
The scene was reminiscent of a suicide bombing at a cultural center in southeastern Turkey in July that killed 32 Kurdish activists. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Turkish authorities said that the assailant was linked to the Islamic State.
Violence in the country’s volatile southeast has flared since that attack, with the resumption of an old bloody conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K. Hundreds have died in daily clashes between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces.
Although the clashes have mainly taken place in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, a sense of instability has settled over Turkey’s major cities, with increased fears over a spillover of violence ahead of a Nov. 1 parliamentary election.
“We were expecting an attack in Ankara before the election, but nothing to this extent,” said Sedat Kartal, who went to the scene of the blast on Saturday after hearing it from a distance. “ There’s so much hate and polarization, nothing is surprising anymore”
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held an emergency security meeting after the incident on Saturday and was expected to issue a statement later in the day.