Twin bomb attacks outside Istanbul stadium kill at least 40

In this photo taken late Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, police forensic officers work after explosions near the Besiktas football club stadium Vodafone Arena in Istanbul. (Goktay Koraltan/Depo Photos via AP)

A twin bomb attack on police officers outside a football stadium in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, has killed 38 people and injured many more, the BBC wrote.

A car bomb hit a police vehicle and a suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest in quick succession late on Saturday, it added.

The blasts occurred near the stadium of top-division team Besiktas, two hours after a match. Ten arrests were made.

The government says initial findings point towards Kurdish militants, who have targeted police in the past.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told CNN Turk news channel that “arrows point” to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK).

Thirty of those killed in the attack were police officers, officials say.
A further 155 people were being treated in hospital, 14 of them in intensive care, health officials say, according to the BBC.

Photographs posted on Instagram after the explosion showed helmets strewn on a road and damaged vehicles.

No group has said it was behind the attack but a wave of bombings in Turkey this year has been carried out both by the PKK and so-called Islamic State (IS), says the BBC’s Mark Lowen in Istanbul.

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