Bomb blasts kill 38 near Istanbul's Besiktas stadium

 

At least 38 people were killed and more than 155 others wounded, after two bomb explosions hit outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday, an attack coordinated mostly on police personnel, said authorities.

The blasts occurred at the Vodafone Arena home to Istanbul's Besiktas football team and was followed by a suicide bomb attack in an adjacent park less than a minute later.

Turkey's interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, announced that 30 police officers, seven civilians and an unidentified person were killed, adding that 13 suspects have been detained so far in connection with the attack.

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks on Sunday, claimed responsibility for the two bomb attack outside the Istanbul soccer stadium.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has carried out a three-decade armed insurgency, mainly in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast.

 

Turkey has declared one-day of mourning. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim also ordered flags to fly at half mast.