50 killed in suicide blast at wedding party in Turkey

ISIS likely behind attack, says President; bomber was aged between 12 and 14 years

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At least 50 people have been killed in a suspected suicide blast during wedding celebrations in southern Turkey, the local governor's office has said.
SPH Brightcove Video
At least 22 people have been killed and 94 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing at a wedding celebration in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.
Pieces of a projectile found near the explosion scene in Gaziantep. The bride and groom survived the attack but the groom was wounded. Witnesses said there were women and children among the dead.
Pieces of a projectile found near the explosion scene in Gaziantep. The bride and groom survived the attack but the groom was wounded. Witnesses said there were women and children among the dead. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

GAZIANTEP (Turkey) • At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing in the street at a wedding party in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the local governor's office has said.

President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey which faces threats from militants at home and across the border with Syria.

The bomber was aged between 12 and 14 years old, he added.

Celebrations were coming to an end and some families had already left when the blast tore through partygoers, and women and children were among the dead, witnesses said. "There was blood and body parts everywhere," said one eyewitness, 25-year-old Veli Can.

Bloodstains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the wedding party was attacked. Women in white and chequered scarves cried, sitting cross-legged and waiting outside the morgue for word on missing relatives.

The local governor's office said in a statement that 50 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province. A prosecutor's office said a destroyed suicide vest was found at the blast site.

The bride and groom survived the attack, though the groom was wounded, a local official said. It had been a traditional henna night, a celebration held by the bride's family before the wedding itself when henna paint is applied to the guests.

At least 12 people were buried yesterday, but other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Mr Mahmut Togrul, an HDP lawmaker from Gaziantep, some 40km north of the border with Syria, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding.

ISIS has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.

"It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said.

"We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Turkey is still tense after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on United States-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

It was the deadliest attack since October last year, when suicide bombers killed 100 people after they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Three suspected ISIS suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June.

Violence flared again this week in the largely Kurdish south-east. Ten people were killed in bomb attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 22, 2016, with the headline 50 killed in suicide blast at wedding party in Turkey. Subscribe