ISTANBUL-(MaraviPost) — Four people have died and 38 others wounded after an explosion reaped through one of Istanbul’s most popular pedestrian thoroughfares on Sunday, November 13, 2022.
Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya confirmed the death toll on his official Twitter page shortly after the explosion.
The explosion occurred shortly after 4:00 pm on Sunday in the famous Istiklal shopping street which is lined by shops and restaurants and is usually crowded by tourists and locals, Al Jazeera reported.
The cause of the explosion is still unknown but police, health, fire and AFAD teams were sent to the scene of the tragedy and five prosecutors were reportedly assigned to investigate the explosion,
The Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has called for swift response of the police and health worker teams as they respond to the explosion in the city.
Turkey’s RTUK regulator has imposed a broadcast ban on coverage of the blast around an hour after it occurred.
Meanwhile, the police have established a large security cordon to prevent access to the damaged area for fear of a second explosion.
Turkey was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017 by the Islamic State group and outlawed Kurdish groups which included a suicide bomber attack on the same street, on 19 March 2016, that killed five people and saw 36 people injured.
