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Three hurt in Istanbooms
 Three people were slightly injured in three explosions outside a municipal building in Istanbul on Thursday, officials and media reports said.Witnesses said unidentified assailants hurled explosives at the building in Uskudar, on Istanbul's Asian side, but the police cautioned against early conclusions. One blast occurred in a garbage-collecting truck in the car park of the building, while two others ripped through a neighbouring cemetery, Uskudar mayor Mehmet Cakir told Anatolia news agency. "Three workers were slightly injured," Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said at the scene. He said bomb experts were investigating the incident, but added it was too early to conclude it was a bomb attack against the building, raising also the possibility that waste materials in the garbage-collecting truck might have exploded. Witnesses said explosives were hurled from behind trees in the cemetery, located behind the municipal building, Anatolia reported. Hand grenades or small bombs designed to scare rather than kill are thought to have been used, the CNN Turk news channel said. Two people on a motorbike were seen fleeing the scene, it said. The explosions shattered the windows of the building and damaged vehicles in the car park. Two bombs, blamed on separatist Kurdish rebels, ripped through a crowded street in Istanbul's European side on July 27, killing 17 people and leaving about 150 others injured. Eight people accused of belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were subsequently arrested in connection with the blasts. Leftist and Islamist radicals have in the past also carried out bomb attacks in Turkey's biggest city. Posted by: Fred 2008-08-08 |
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