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An explosion on popular Istiklal Street in central Istanbul’s Taksim Square area has taken the lives of at least five people. The blast is believed to have been caused by a suicide bomber.
According to government officials, the explosion killed at least five people and injured 36 others, seven of whom were severely injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the blast killed at least two Israeli citizens.
Two Americans were also killed, and Iran confirmed the death of one of its citizens.
“The United States strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack in Istanbul, Turkey,” said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price in a statement.
The suspected suicide bomber is also thought to have died. Twenty-four foreign nationals were injured, including 11 Israelis.
The blast, according to Trukish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, was “inhumane” and would not deter Turkey from fighting “centres of terrorism”.
Footage from the scene showed cops and emergency personnel cordoning off the street, which had been cleared of all people.
Al Jazeera claims that witnesses said that hundreds of people fled the scene of the explosion in fear moments after it occurred.
There was no immediate admission of guilt from any terrorist organisation.
Istiklal Street is a long pedestrian thoroughfare that runs from Taksim Square through the Beyoglu neighbourhood.
It is surrounded by hundreds of shops and would have been bustling with people at the time of the explosion.
The explosion came as Turkey was on edge following two recent suicide bomb attacks in Ankara claimed by a Kurdish group affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Turkey sees the unrest in its predominantly Kurdish southeast as being inextricably linked to events in northern Syria, where the Kurdish YPG militia has seized territory while fighting both ISIL and rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Since June 2015, ISIL has carried out at least four bomb attacks in Turkey, including a suicide bombing that killed ten German tourists in central Istanbul in January.
