Istanbul bomb attacks kill 2

2004-08-10 06:36

Istanbul - Two bombs exploded at hotels in tourist areas of Istanbul early on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring seven others in an apparent terrorist attack, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The blasts, swiftly followed by two other bombings in the city which caused no casualties, happened almost simultaneously at around 02:00 in the city's Laleli and Sultanahmet districts, where many tourists stay during their visits to Turkey's main city, which has some 12 million inhabitants.

Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said: "For the moment everything is pointing to a terrorist attack."

The nationality of the victims was not immediately known but TV channel CNN-Turk reported that Two Chinese, two Dutch, a Ukrainian and a Turk had been injured in the blasts.

The explosion in Laleli, notably frequented by tourists from ex-Soviet nations, caused serious damage to the hotel, blowing out all the windows on the third floor and causing a fire.

Two other bombs went off at 03:00, an hour after the original blasts, in the Esenyurt district, at a major liquefied gas storage site. The blasts caused damage but no casualties, according to television reports. - AP/AFP

- AFP