At least six people have died and 53 have been injured in an explosion on Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue, according to the provincial governor, Ali Yerlikaya. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already confirmed that it is "a vile attack." The deflagration, at 4:20 p.m. local time, occurred when this pedestrian street, the busiest and most touristic in the metropolis, was crowded, with all the shops, cafes and restaurants open, despite being Sunday.
The detonation would come from an abandoned bag in a flower bed in front of one of the two Mango stores on the avenue. The images published on social networks show inert bodies, ambulances, fire trucks and police officers at the scene after the deflagration. Access to the area, normally crowded with tourists - mainly from the Middle East - has been cut off after a few minutes and the shops have lowered their shutters.
Turkey was hit by a long series of attacks that caused hundreds of deaths in 2015 and 2016, claimed mostly by Islamic State and in some cases by a subsidiary organization of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Turkey's media watchdog has imposed a temporary ban on reporting on the blast, a measure that prevents broadcasters from showing videos of the moment of the blast or its aftermath.
