Istanbul’s Istiklal street in fear after alleged terror attack claims 6 lives

An explosion shook a popular pedestrian area in downtown Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue, killing six people and injuring 81 others in what Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan described as a bomb strike that "smells like terrorism."

Suleyman Soylu, Turkey's Interior Minister, claimed police had captured 22 suspects, including the individual who put the device.

"The perpetrator of the act, who left the bomb, was apprehended. Previously, around 21 additional persons were held "Soylu said.

Television news reports revealed photos of a lady putting a parcel beneath a raised flower bed on Istiklal Avenue, a prominent shopping and tourist destination with a tramline spanning the length of the street.

Soylu said that the order for the attack on Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue came from Kobani, a city in northern Syria where Turkish soldiers had recently conducted operations against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

"We have evaluated that the instruction for the attack came from Kobani," Soylu added, adding that the bomber had travelled through Afrin, another territory in northern Syria.

Fifty people were freed from hospitals following the incident, raising fears that Turkey may be targeted with further bombs and attacks, similar to the sequence of strikes that occurred between mid-2015 and 2017.