A suicide bomber threw a grenade into a police station in a suburb of Turkey’s largest city Istanbul on Tuesday then blew himself up, killing one police officer and wounding at least seven other people.
There was no claim of responsibility and it was not immediately clear whether the attacker had acted alone. Separatist Kurdish militants, far-left groups and Islamic radicals have all carried out attacks in Istanbul in the past.
“First (the attacker) threw a grenade, then blew himself up at the entrance of the police station, where the X-ray machines are located,” Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin told reporters at the scene.
“The policeman working at the entrance was killed. Another four personnel were wounded, as well as three others who are civilians,” he said, adding that the attacker was aged around 25 but declining to comment further on his identity.
The front doors of the police station in Sultangazi, a working class and largely residential district on the northern edge of central Istanbul, were destroyed in the blast.
Medics ferried the wounded into a local hospital while armed police sealed off streets around the building.