Three people have been killed and up to 20 others injured in an explosion in the Turkish holiday resort of Antalya this afternoon, according to reports from Turkish police and television.
While the cause of the explosion remains unclear, suspicions were raised that it was a fourth terror attack on tourists. Antalya lies about 80 miles east of Marmaris, the scene of three bomb blasts yesterday in which 21 people, including ten Britons, were injured.
The Antalya governor’s office confirmed the blast but did not give any casualty figures. “The cause of the explosion is still under investigation,” said Guzide Ormeci, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office. “It occurred in front of a building housing Turkish restaurants.”
Two witnesses told Reuters by telephone from Antalya they heard a loud explosion, which broke windows, shattered glass, and sparked a fire at a shopping area in the centre of the city, one of Turkey’s most popular tourist destinations.
“A parked motorbike next to a tramway had exploded and pieces of the motorbike were shattered all around. A man who was a street vendor was then dead,” said a shaken local businessman, who declined to be named.
Just a few weeks ago Antalya, which is popular with German and British tourists, suffered another bomb attack that killed four people and injured 28. The Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK), a Kurdish separatist group which has threatened a bombing campaign against the tourist industry, later claimed responsibility for that attack.
"Foreign currency brought in by tourists is the greatest resource of the Turkish state in its attacks against the Kurdish people," the group said in April. "We declare that we will target hotels, amusement areas and tourism companies."
Three explosions were reported to have gone off in the tourist resort of Marmaris late last night, but only one apparently detonated properly, underneath the seats on a minibus carrying holidaymakers in the centre of the town, said Turkish police. It is reported that at least 21 were injured by the explosion on the shuttle bus, known as a dolmus, which ferries tourists around the resort.
The condition of four of the British victims was described as "serious" but none of the ten suffered life-threatening injuries, according to a hospital spokeswoman in Marmaris.
Six Britons were taken to Ahu Hetman Hospital in Marmaris, while four others were admitted to the Caria hospital. Ahu Hetman Hospital spokeswoman Julie Midgley said the six Britons admitted ranged in ages from a seven-year-old boy to a 65-year-old woman. Two were reported to have been operated on for shrapnel-related wounds. Ms Midgley said this morning that all six had spent a "comfortable" night.
Four British casualties were taken to the private Caria Hospital by ambulance said its foreign operations manager Suzanne Poyraz. All four were wounded when a bus exploded in the town’s main street, outside a McDonald’s restaurant, at about 11.55pm local time and suffered burns and shrapnel injuries to their legs and "lower extremities", Ms Poyraz said. She said a couple - a man and a woman, aged 38 and 44 respectively, from Coventry - had received minor injuries and had been discharged and efforts were being made to arrange a flight home today to the UK.
BBC News 24 showed Alex Beckford, 10, from Birmingham, who had suffered leg, arm and head injuries, and his grandmother, Suzanna Beckford, who had suffered arm injuries.
The 10-year-old’s cousin, Louis, was also pictured with leg injuries. Mrs Beckford told the BBC: "Why have they done this to us? We have done nothing."
A 13-year-old girl and a 73-year-old woman had both undergone surgery at the Caria hospital, Ms Poyraz said and arrangements were being made for their repatriation to the UK. "In the circumstances, we feel that emotionally and psychologically it is best to get them back with their families and friends at home as soon as possible," she said.
Police chief Emin Korpe of Mugla province, where Marmaris is located, said 21 people were injured in the bus blast. Mr Korpe said one of the injured was in a serious condition, but gave no further details. None of the injured had life-threatening injuries and nine people were released from the hospital following treatment, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Police immediately boosted security in the area and set up roadblocks outside of Marmaris. Municipality trucks went around main streets removing rubbish bins.
Rob Laughton and his wife, Susan, who live in West London, were having dinner at the Rover’s Return restaurant when the bus bomb exploded. The couple ran out and saw bodies lying around the vehicle.
Mr Laughton, 41, an assistant operations manager for a catering firm, said: "We heard this almighty explosion. We just saw the bus and bodies lying on the ground. We thought, we just don’t want to be here. We just ran away."
Danielle Pearson, a Scottish holidaymaker, said that the streets of the resort had been busy. She said: "We heard one of the bombs and it sounded just like a gunshot. The bus had exploded outside a McDonald’s restaurant. We saw its remains: it had been ripped apart. Ambulances and police cars were going everywhere. The streets were really busy, with people running everywhere. Before the explosions people were being typical holidaymakers and just enjoying themselves."
Michael Grant, 39, who has been living in Marmaris for 20 years, said: "I heard the explosions. They were very loud, extremely loud, and then there were police and ambulances going to the scene. My housemate, Debra Lewis, and I could see people running from from the area and police and ambulance crews.
"What we have heard from people coming from the area of the blasts is that there were three explosions at about 1am local time and it was supposed to be an attack by the PKK, the Kurdish national party."
Jill Thornton, of Consett, Co Durham, said that her son, Daniel, 19, had seen the aftermath of one bomb. He had told her that another blast took place on a bus travelling to Icmeler, a nearby fishing village.
A spokeswoman for tour operator Thomas Cook, which has hundreds of customers staying in the region, said five of its guests were among the injured.
She said: "Following an explosion in Marmaris in Turkey, Thomas Cook can confirm that five guests have been injured and are being cared for in hospital. The extent of their injuries has not yet been confirmed and Thomas Cook’s resort team are working closely with all the authorities to ensure they are all well looked after."
In London, the Foreign Office said a rapid deployment team was being sent to assist the victims. The team would be led by the British ambassador, Sir Peter Westmacott.
In its advice to travellers, the Foreign Office warns of "a high threat from terrorism in Turkey ... We believe that international terrorist groups, as well as indigenous ones, are currently active in Turkey. Further attacks, including in tourist areas, could well occur," the Foreign Office says.
Keith Betton, head of corporate affairs at the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), said almost all the tourists booked to leave the UK today for Marmaris and neighbouring area had gone in spite of the blasts.
Earlier on Sunday, a bomb blast in Istanbul injured six people, police said. The explosion in the Bagcilar district occurred near the local governor’s office and police said they suspected that Kurdish militants were behind the explosion. One of the injured was reported to be in critical condition.
Local authorities pledged to find the culprits for the Marmaris bombs, suspected of belonging to the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a more than 20-year deadly campaign to carve a homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeast. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
"Who did this? What do they want from these people?" asked Suzanne Bedford, whose two grandchildren were being treated at the Ahu Hetman hospital in Marmaris.
The PKK, which is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the EU and US, was responsible for a series of small attacks in the early 1990s on tourist resorts in the south of Turkey. High-profile bombings of Ankara and Istanbul followed in 1999 after the imprisonment of its guerrilla chief, Abdullah Ocalan. But most PKK attacks have been limited to the south-east of Turkey, away from tourist resorts.
Last year, however, a splinter group called the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) came to prominence for a bomb blast in the Aegean resort town of Kusadasi. Five people were killed in that attack, including a British woman and an Irish teenager.
The TAK later warned that it would target the tourism industry and its members have concentrated their attacks on Turkey’s western cities and tourist spots. Earlier this year, they made a specific target of tourists in Turkey, warning holidaymakers to avoid the country "or face the consequences".
There were reports last week that Turkish warplanes had bombed Kurdish guerrilla positions in the Iraqi border region. Thousands of PKK members are believed to be in hiding in the mountains of Kurdish northern Iraq, from where they can slip across the border into Turkey.
