A terrorist attack in Ankara, Turkey has left two policemen injured. Two terrorists detonated a device in Kizilay, a business area of Ankara. One of the offenders blew himself up, while the other was neutralised, according to Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
How the terrorist attack unfolded
The two terrorists planted a bomb in front of the General Directorate of Security in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday morning.
Two police officers were mildly hurt in the attack, which happened at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT), according to Yerlikaya. The explosion was also audible in front of the Turkish Interior Ministry in the city’s center.
NEW: Ankara attack footage from this morning. #Turkey pic.twitter.com/CshYPAB64H
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 1, 2023
The reaction following the terrorist attack
Police forces tightened security in the region after an explosion and gunshots were heard close to the ministry building in Kizilay, the main city center in the Cankaya district of the capital. Furthermore, special operations police were sent to the area. The fire department and medical personnel are also present.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the Turkish opposition, denounced the incident in Ankara and referred to it as “terrorism, a crime against humanity.”
“We will fight it together as a country, no matter from whom and where it comes from, and we will never give treacherous ambitions a chance.” the head of the Republican People’s Party declared.
Here is the footage from a different angle in Ankara attack #Turkey pic.twitter.com/O38Eu8Pyx4
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 1, 2023
A timeline of major terrorist attacks in Turkey since 2016
The terrorist attack in Ankara follows a long line of similar attacks in Turkey.
At least 28 people were murdered and 60 others were injured in a car bombing in Ankara in February 2016. In March of the same year, a car bombing in Ankara left at least 37 people dead and more than 70 injured. During the same month, an explosion on the well-known Istiklal street in the Taksim Square neighborhood of central Istanbul left at least five people dead and 36 injured.
At least 41 people were murdered and approximately 239 others were injured in an incident in June 2016 at Istanbul’s Ataturk international airport.
In August 2016, a suicide assault took place in the province of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey. More than 50 people were killed and several others were injured. In the Hakkari province, a vehicle bomb attack on a military facility resulted in at least 18 fatalities in October 2016.
Nine persons were murdered in a car explosion in Kurdish-dominated southeast Turkey in November 2016, and ISIL took responsibility for it. At least 38 people, predominantly police officers, were killed and more than 160 others were injured in two explosions that occurred in the Turkish city of Istanbul in December 2016.
Next year, at least 39 people were killed in a nightclub attack in Istanbul. Furthermore, an explosion outside a court in Izmir killed at least two people, including a police officer, and wounded several others.
A car bomb explosion claimed the lives of at least three persons in July 2019, in the southern Turkish town of Reyhanli. During the same year, a bomb went off as a van carrying villagers passed by in Diyarbakir province and killed seven people, leaving ten other injured.
In 2022, an explosion in a crowded area of central Istanbul resulted in at least six fatalities and 81 injuries. A Greek woman was one of the victims.