ANKARA: A car bombing rocked the Turkish city of Izmir on Thursday, killing at least two people and triggering a shootout that left two suspected militants dead, as authorities chased the fugitive killer behind the New Year attack in Istanbul.
Turkey is on edge after the shooting rampage at the Reina nightclub unleashed shortly after revellers rang in 2017 which killed 39 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
A top official said the gunman may be a Turkic Uighur and several people of Uighur origin were arrested on Thursday.
Just four days after the nightclub carnage, a car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in the Aegean city of Izmir on Thursday afternoon.
State-run Anadolu news agency said a policeman and a court worker, reportedly a bailiff, were killed.
Police battled "terrorists" in a clash which saw two militants killed while another escaped, according to Anadolu.
Several ambulances rushed to the scene after the blast in the usually peaceful port city, Turkey's third largest metropolis.
The mayor of the local Bayrakli municipality, Hassan Karabag, had told NTV television that at least 10 people were wounded, while the Dogan news agency put the injury toll at 11.
There has so far been no claim of responsibility or an indication of who may have carried out the attack, the latest bombing after a year of bloodshed in the Muslim-majority NATO member.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.