Explosion at Turkish Cultural Center Kills 31
KABUL: (Middle East Press) At least 31 people killed and dozens more wounded in an explosion outside a cultural center in the Turkish town of Suruc near the border with Syria on Monday.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately condemned the bombing, calling it a terrorist attack.
“We are drowning in grief that 28 citizens died and a large number of people were injured as a result of an act of terror,” Erdogan said during a visit to the Turkish breakaway state in northern Cyprus. “On behalf of my people, I curse and condemn the perpetrators of this brutality.”
The Turkish interior ministry also said that initial evidence indicated it “was a suicide attack by the Islamic State [group]”.
Television footage showed bodies lying beneath trees outside the building in the mostly Kurdish town in southeastern Turkey, which lies some 10 kilometers from the Syrian border.
“I saw more than 20 bodies. I think the number of wounded is more than 50. They are still being put into ambulances,” one witness told Reuters by telephone, giving his name as Mehmet. “It was a huge explosion, we all shook.”
Pervin Buldan, a senior lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish HDP opposition party, said local officials were investigating the possibility that it was a suicide bombing.
She said the blast happened as Turkish and Kurdish youths gathered at the cultural centre ahead of a planned trip to the town of Kobane in Syria, which was secured by Syrian Kurdish fighters last month after an assault by Islamic State (IS) group militants.
“Turkish and Kurdish youth had come to cross into Kobane, and there were three or four days of activities planned,” she said, adding that HDP lawmakers were on their way to the scene.
