Police targets in Turkish blasts

Rescue services and ambulances rush to the scene of explosions near the Besiktas football club stadium in Istanbul. Photo / AP

Two bomb blasts outside a football stadium in Istanbul have left 38 dead and 166 injured, the country's Interior Minister has said.

The explosions took place two hours after a match between two of Turkey's leading teams, Besiktas and Bursaspor. Of those who died, 30 were police officers.

"Unfortunately we have martyrs and wounded," said the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. One of the blasts was caused by a car bomb and the second was a suicide attack at Macka Park nearby, 45 seconds later.

At the time of the blast Erdogan was at his Istanbul residence in the suburb of Tarabya further down the Bosphorus, state media said.

Police also carried out a controlled explosion. The Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, who released the latest casualty figures, said the car bomb was detonated remotely. He added that 17 of those injured were undergoing surgery at a nearby hospital, with six in intensive care.

Armed police sealed off streets around the Vodafone Arena, home to the Besiktas football team. TV footage showed what appeared to be the wreckage of a burned out car and two separate fires on the road outside the stadium.

Soylu said initial indications were the blast was caused by a car bomb targeting a riot police bus.

Turkish Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said that it was a terrorist attack. There was no claim of responsibility.

Omer Yilmiz, a cleaner at the nearby Dolmabahce mosque, said: "It was like hell. The flames went all the way up to the sky. I was drinking tea at the cafe next to the mosque. People ducked under the tables, women began crying. Football fans drinking tea at the cafe sought shelter, it was horrible."

It happened after Besiktas beat visitors Bursaspor 2-1 in the Turkish Super League. More than a dozen ambulances arrived on a street next to the stadium. Besiktas football club confirmed none of the fans or players were hurt.

Turkey has experienced a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead and put the country on high alert. Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara, while suspected Isis (Islamic State) suicide bombers have hit Istanbul on three occasions. In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, with authorities pointing the finger at Isis. Another 57 people, 34 of them children, were killed in August in a suicide attack by an Isis-linked bomber at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Last week a newly identified spokesman for Isis urged sympathisers around the world to carry out a fresh wave of attacks, singling out Turkish diplomatic, military and financial interests as the Islamists' preferred targets. Abi al-Hassan al-Muhajer said Isis supporters would target "the secular, apostate Turkish Government in every security, military, economic and media establishment, including every embassy and consulate, that represents it in all countries of the world".

The country is also still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, that has been followed by a relentless purge of his alleged supporters.