Turkey blames Istanbul blast on Kurdish militants, arrests 22 including suspected woman bomber

ISTANBUL: Turkey's government blamed Kurdish militants on Monday for a blast that killed six people in Istanbul's main shopping street, and said police had detained 22 suspects, including the person suspected to have planted the bomb. State broadcaster TRT released footage of police escorting a woman, the main suspect, from an apartment after an overnight raid. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara says is a wing of the PKK, were responsible for the attack on the historic and bustling Istiklal Avenue on Sunday. Soylu said the order was given in Kobani and the bomber passed through Afrin - both cities in northern Syria where Turkish forces have carried out operations against the YPG in recent years.

The woman, with curly hair and in a purple jumper with the words 'New York' on it, was shown being brought into police headquarters in the TRT footage. Police used a dog to search the apartment and found gold, money and ammunition, it showed.

Six Turkish citizens, two members each of three families, were killed in the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.

Hundreds of people fled after the blast on Istiklal Avenue, a popular spot for shoppers and tourists with a tramline running its length. The area, in the Beyoglu district of Turkey's largest city, had been crowded as usual at the weekend.

Earlier television news reports showed images of a person, who appeared to be a woman, leaving a package below a raised flower bed in the middle of the street.

The attack sparked concerns that Turkey could be hit with more incidents ahead of tense elections scheduled for June 2023.

A wave of bombings and other attacks began when a ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK broke down in mid-2015, ahead of a vote in November that year. The last major attack was a shooting at an Istanbul night club on 2017 New Year's Eve.

Istanbul has been attacked in the past by Kurdish, Islamist and leftist militants.

Of those wounded on Sunday, two of the five people being treated in intensive care were in a critical condition, the Istanbul Governor's office said. They were among the 31 wounded still in hospital, while 50 people had been discharged.