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‘It was like hell’: Istanbul terror attack kills 38

Riot police appear to have been targeted in the attack.

Riot police appear to have been targeted in the attack. Photo: AAP

Witnesses have described the “hell” of two car bomb explosions that killed 38 people outside a soccer stadium in central Istanbul.

Turkey has declared a national day of mourning after the co-ordinated explosions, which have left 166 injured and so far led to 10 arrests. The blasts occurred hours after the end of Saturday’s match between two of Turkey’s top teams and were reportedly an attack on police.

A photographer who witnessed the attack said several riot police officers were seriously wounded.

“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,” said Omer Yilmiz, who works as a cleaner at the nearby Dolmabahce mosque.

Istanbul bombs

The explosions led to panic in the vicinity of the stadium. Photo: AAP

“People ducked under the tables, women began crying. Football fans drinking tea at the cafe sought shelter, it was horrible.”

An offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.

In a statement on its website on Sunday, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said it had carried out the attacks.

TAK has taken responsibility for other deadly attacks in Turkey this year.

The first bomb exploded in a car outside the Vodafone Arena, home to Istanbul’s Besiktas soccer team, leaving flaming wreckage on the street.

Forty-five seconds later, a suspect wearing explosives detonated them while surrounded by police in an adjacent park, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told a news conference.

President Tayyip Erdogan described the blasts as a terrorist attack on police and civilians. He said the aim of the bombings, two hours after the end of a match attended by thousands of people, had been to cause the maximum number of casualties.

“Nobody should doubt that with God’s will, we as a country and a nation will overcome terror, terrorist organisations … and the forces behind them,” he said in a statement.

Armed police sealed off streets around the stadium. A police water cannon doused the wreckage of the burned-out car and there were two separate fires on the road outside the building.

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Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 30 of the 38 killed were police officers, and that 17 of the wounded were undergoing surgery. Six are in intensive care.

Turkish soccer team Bursaspor said none of its fans appeared to have been injured in the explosion.

“We have contacted our fan groups. There appear to be no injuries among our fans. We wish injured citizens a quick recovery,” Bursaspor said in a statement on its Twitter account.

Turkey is a member of the NATO military alliance and part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State. It launched a military incursion into Syria in August against the radical Islamist group.

Turkey has been hit by a series of bombings in recent years, some blamed on Islamic State militants, others claimed by Kurdish and far-leftist militant groups.

-with agencies

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