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| Suicide Bomber Attacks Istanbul Police Station | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| ISTANBUL — A female suicide bomber walked into a police station in Istanbul’s most tourist-filled district on Tuesday and blew herself up, the city’s governor said. | ISTANBUL — A female suicide bomber walked into a police station in Istanbul’s most tourist-filled district on Tuesday and blew herself up, the city’s governor said. |
| One officer was killed and another wounded, the semiofficial Anadolu News Agency said. | |
| The identity and nationality of the bomber were not immediately clear but the governor, Vasip Sahin, told reporters at the scene that she had spoken English. She told police officers she had lost a wallet, the governor said. | |
| The attack took place on a snowy day in the historic city’s Sultanahmet district, home to some of its most storied and heavily trafficked visitor sites in Istanbul, including the famed Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Museum, once the leading temple of Eastern Orthodox Christians. | |
| A street merchant, who was in the area at the time of the explosion, said the woman had walked past a souvenir shop and asked for directions to the tourism police station minutes before blowing herself up. | |
| “She was well-dressed and looked decent,” said the merchant, Omer Cenker, a tea seller. | |
| “It’s snowing, so there was nothing suspicious about her big coat, or what she was wearing,” Mr. Cenker said. | |
| Shop owners in the vicinity said they had heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire. | |
| “Thank God there was a storm outside because everyone was inside when the explosion went off,” said Yusuf Akyun, a clerk in a souvenir shop. “Normally there would have been more people by the police station.” | |
| It was the second time in a week that the police in Istanbul were attacked. Last Thursday, a man lobbed grenades and fired a weapon at officers near the Istanbul offices of the prime minister before he was subdued. | It was the second time in a week that the police in Istanbul were attacked. Last Thursday, a man lobbed grenades and fired a weapon at officers near the Istanbul offices of the prime minister before he was subdued. |
| The leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party, an extremist militant group in Turkey that asserted responsibility for a suicide bombing at the United States Embassy last year, asserted responsibility for last Thursday’s attack. |