Bomb blast wounds 14 in Istanbul

A bomb exploded at an internet café near a police station in Istanbul today, wounding 14 people, police chief said.

Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah said six police officers and two civilians, including a child, were wounded when the bomb went off inside the café.

Six other passers-by, all civilians, were injured in the street, he said.

Cerrah said the injured child was in serious condition.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the city’s Bayrampasa district.

The internet café was frequented by police officers from the nearby local headquarters of Istanbul’s riot police.

Police cordoned off the area, and ambulances rushed the injured to hospitals.

Radical Islamic, Kurdish and leftist militants are active in the city.

Al-Qaida-linked Turkish militants carried out a series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in November 2003, killing some 60 people.

A hard-line Kurdish militant group later claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Organisation, a hardline group believed to be linked to the main Kurdish guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers Party, claimed responsibility for the bombing in a telephone call, the Firat News Agency, based in the Netherlands, said on its website.