Bomb maker killed in Turkish shop blast

A bomb exploded in a shoe shop in the Turkish city of Istanbul overnight, killing the man making it and wounding seven other people, Turkish media reported yesterday. "According to the first indications, the explosion happened as a bomb was being...

A bomb exploded in a shoe shop in the Turkish city of Istanbul overnight, killing the man making it and wounding seven other people, Turkish media reported yesterday.

"According to the first indications, the explosion happened as a bomb was being made," state-run Anatolian news agency quoted Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah as saying.

Police suspect the bomber and two of those wounded in the blast were members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a bitter 20-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in south-eastern Turkey that has killed some 30,000 people.

The blast went off in a shoe shop in the basement floor of the Oral Business Centre on the European side of Istanbul. The shop owner and a number of other people have been detained, Anatolian said.

In the past few years, Kurdish, leftist and Islamic militants have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey.

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