Istanbul (AsiaNews) - A terrorist attack last night in the tourist area of Istanbul: a woman came into a police station and blew herself up. Besides the attacker, one police officer died and another was seriously injured.
As reported on television by the governor of the city, Vasip Sahin, the woman entered the police station of Sultanahmet (pictured) - near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia - saying in English that she had lost her purse and blew herself up. She tried to pass through the metal detector. Blocked by an agent, she detonated a grenade. The attack could have had many more victims, because the woman had two other bombs, which remained unexploded and were then defused.
The Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that it is not known if the woman - whose nationality is still unknown - is tied to some terrorist group, but press sources are referring to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, a far-left group that has claimed responsibility for the attack last Thursday, when a man threw several bombs at a police station not far from the office of the Prime Minister.