Turkish police foil another possible bomb attack

Police in Turkey have detained a suspected Kurdish rebel believed to be plotting a new bomb attack.

The detention came as security forces in one of the country’s most popular tourist resorts searched today for two people suspected of planting a bomb that killed three people and injured at least 20.

Attacks against the critical tourism industry are very sensitive in Turkey and authorities would not immediately confirm that the attack in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya was the result of a bomb attack.

But the Milliyet newspaper and other reports said police had drawn up sketches of two suspects from descriptions of men seen fleeing the scene.

Yesterday’s attack in Antalya came a day after bomb attacks struck another tourist center, Marmaris, and an Istanbul neighbourhood.

A militant Kurdish group claimed responsibility for those attacks and warned tourists not to visit Turkey.

In the Aegean port city of Izmir, police yesterday detained a suspected Kurdish rebel they claimed had infiltrated into Turkey from northern Iraq in order to carry out bombings, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Police searching his home found 2.5 kilos of plastic explosives, the report said.