At Least 10 Dead in 'Massive' Istanbul Tourist Zone Blast

[jimmy olsen]

Awful!

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/istanbul-turkish-media-says-blast-hits-sultanahmet-square-n494506

Istanbul's Sultanahmet District Hit by Blast; At Least 10 Dead, 15 Wounded

by Aziz Akyavas , Cassandra Vinograd, Alexander Smith and Richard Engel

An explosion in a popular Istanbul tourist area killed at least 10 people, mostly foreigners, and wounded 15 others on Tuesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blast in the historic Sultanahmet district an act of "terror."

The country's deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said a Syrian-born suicide bomber in their 20s was behind the attack.

Most of the dead were foreign tourists, according to Kurtulmus, who said in a televised speech that two of the wounded were in a critical condition.

Norway's foreign ministry confirmed one of its citizens was injured, while Germany's government expressed concern for its nationals and said that a group of German tourists was among those affected by the blast. The German government did not provide further details.

The explosion struck close to a monument called the German Fountain, between the Blue Mosque and the Haghia Sofia — the city's famous landmark turned a museum and one of Istanbul's areas most popular with tourists.

Surrounding streets were closed off by authorities in the aftermath and many shops and hotels appeared to have shut their doors. Armed officers and riot police guarded a wider perimeter.

The blast could be heard for miles across the city, and following the explosion there was a flood of activity on social media from people checking on their friends and family.

Majd Egbareia, a 28-year-old nurse from Israel on vacation with his family, was praying in the nearby Blue Moque when the blast shook the square.

"It was one big blast, one massive blast ... it sounded like something you only hear in the movies," Egbareia told NBC News by telephone.

He said he heard a woman screaming and ran to the door to see "three or four bodies" as well as the screaming woman, who was wounded, around 100 feet away.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in Turkey, which has been grappling with the threat of ISIS-linked extremists.

A double suicide bombing blamed on ISIS killed more than 100 people in Ankara in October, and Turkey has since stepped up its efforts to tackle the militants.

Turkish officials in December said they had detained two suspected ISIS militants and foiled a plot to bomb the New Year's Eve celebrations in its capital, Ankara.

[Tamas]

pretext to move in on Syria!

[Queequeg]

Had a conversation last night with a very young American tourist telling him that the reason I wasn't in Istanbul was that I knew that terrorism was going to get worse.  He was going to Istanbul the next day (today) and disagreed with me vehemently.  Very sad to be proven right.

[Maladict]

Had a conversation last night with a very young American tourist telling him that the reason I wasn't in Istanbul was that I knew that terrorism was going to get worse.  He was going to Istanbul the next day (today) and disagreed with me vehemently.  Very sad to be proven right.

I'm planning a trip ending in Istanbul for March/April 

[Valmy]

My parents were in Turkey last year and missed getting bombed at the Ankara train station by one day so probably everybody should add it to the countries one probably shouldn't vacation in for the time being.

[Caliga]

A friend and former co-worker of mine was in Istanbul on vacation last spring and I worried about her going there.  Nothing happened, but this is the kind of thing that I was worried about.

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

[Valmy]

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

[Caliga]

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

I think you're being a little optimistic.

[Tamas]

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

Hate to tell you but this has been business as usual there for most of the past 12 000 years. People just didn't have explosives

[Caliga]

Did we: violate the Prime Directive.

[Valmy]

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

Hate to tell you but this has been business as usual there for most of the past 12 000 years. People just didn't have explosives

I bet I could have visited Egypt and Turkey in the 60s and everything would have been cool. Hell I could have visited Afghanistan and Iraq just fine as well.

[Tamas]

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

Hate to tell you but this has been business as usual there for most of the past 12 000 years. People just didn't have explosives

I bet I could have visited Egypt and Turkey in the 60s and everything would have been cool. Hell I could have visited Afghanistan and Iraq just fine as well.

Exceptions are not the rule.

[Barrister]

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

Hate to tell you but this has been business as usual there for most of the past 12 000 years. People just didn't have explosives

I bet I could have visited Egypt and Turkey in the 60s and everything would have been cool. Hell I could have visited Afghanistan and Iraq just fine as well.

But you wouldn't have been able to visit Vietnam or China, and now they're prime tourist destinations.

[Malthus]

It's a shame too, because I would LOVE to visit Istanbul myself.

Yeah it is one of my dream vacations. Ah well. I really want to go to Egypt also. Maybe decades from now when all of this is just a bad memory.

Hate to tell you but this has been business as usual there for most of the past 12 000 years. People just didn't have explosives

I bet I could have visited Egypt and Turkey in the 60s and everything would have been cool. Hell I could have visited Afghanistan and Iraq just fine as well.

But you wouldn't have been able to visit Vietnam or China, and now they're prime tourist destinations.

Hey, if he was the right age, the US Government would have given him an all expenses paid trip to visit Vietnam. 

[Valmy]

But you wouldn't have been able to visit Vietnam or China, and now they're prime tourist destinations.

True. That kind of supports what I am saying though doesn't it?