An explosion near a police station in the Yenibosna neighbourhood of Istanbul on Thursday afternoon has injured five people, private broadcaster CNN Türk has reported.
According to Doğan News Agency, the blast occurred inside a vehicle, seriously injuring one person.
Nearby vehicles and window of houses were damaged by the blast which was caused by the detonation of a bomb-laden motorcycle, according to a tweet by Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin
One person dressed in a black coat, jeans and black helmet fled the scene just before the explosion, eyewitnesses said
The police are continuing to hunt for the suspect on main routes across the city, along with searches on public buses and metro-buses.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s media watchdog, RTÜK, imposed a customary gag order following the blast.
The site of the blast was also close to a military recruiting office and the Forensic Medicine Institute. It was not the first time that the police station near the scene had been targeted in an attack. In 2012, two assailants staged an armed attack on the same police station, wounding two police officers.
Turkey has been rocked by a wave of deadly bomb attacks in recent months, some blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and some on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group.
Hurriyet
