Bomb kills five in Turkish commercial centre

A powerful bomb ripped through one of the Ankara's busiest commercial centres today, killing five people and injuring more than 50, the Turkish city's mayor said.

Private NTV television, quoting police sources, said the bomb was made of plastic explosives, the type favoured by separatist Kurdish rebels. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The blast outside one of the oldest shopping malls in Ankara hurled glass and other debris over a wide area. A body, covered in a white sheet, lay outside the building.

Television footage shortly after the blast showed medics tending to the injured and carrying people into ambulances on stretchers.

"The scene here is horrific," Mayor Melih Gokcek said. He said at least four Turkish people and one Pakistani died in the bomb blast.

"There was a sudden explosion, everything turned to dust," said Cenk Yedier, a witness. "I could hear people screaming."

Forensic teams collected evidence.

Private television stations NTV and CNN-Turk said police were considering the possibility of a bomb left inside a package at bus stops in the area, or an attack by a suicide bomber.

At least 15 people, some of them foreigners, were taken to a hospital nearby, hospital officials told CNN-Turk television.