Footage shows massive suicide car bombing at Turkey police HQ that killed two officers
A deadly suicide car bombing on a police headquarters in Turkey was captured on security camera, showing the massive fireball blast that sent shrapnel flying in every direction.
The explosion killed two police officers and wounded 22 people in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep in one of three attacks on security forces on Sunday.
CCTV shows the large orange explosion reaching several dozen metres into the air, taking the charred remnants of the vehicle used to deliver the bomb with it.
Photos and video of the scene after the blast show a piece of black and crumpled metal - barely recognisable as a car chassis.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but security sources said police raided the home of a suspected Islamic State militant believed to have carried out the attack, and detained his father for DNA tests and questioning.
Turkey has suffered attacks recently, both by Kurdish militants and members of Islamic State, raising concern at home and among NATO allies about the increasing spillover of conflict from neighbouring Syria. The city of Gaziantep is just 65 kilometres from the Syrian border.
The Gaziantep-based suspect is believed to have detonated a bomb-laden vehicle just outside the gates of the city's main police headquarters on a street housing several other provincial government buildings, whose windows were also smashed.
RELATED LINKS
"The father of a suspect who is believed to have carried out the attack has been detained. We have records of the suspect's links with Islamic State," a security source said.
Sources also said there were two vehicles carrying out the attack. While the suicide bomber was inside the detonated car, three men opened fire on police guarding the station.
Several security sources also said police had received intelligence on the attack on Saturday and had ordered officers not to gather in front of the station as they deployed for May Day celebrations, a move which may have prevented a higher toll.
Nineteen police and four civilians were wounded, a statement from the governor's office said. One officer died at the scene and a second later in hospital, a security source said.
"We have eight people in intensive care. Seven of them are police officers," Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told reporters after visiting the wounded.
Gaziantep, which borders Islamic State-held Syrian territory, is home to a large Syrian refugee population and there have been several police raids on suspected Islamic State militants there over the past months.
A wave of suicide bombings this year, including two in Turkey's largest city Istanbul, have been blamed on Islamic State, and two in the capital Ankara were claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
The Kurdish militant group TAK, an offshoot of PKK, on Sunday claimed a suicide bombing last week in Turkey's fourth-largest city of Bursa that wounded eight people.
News break – May 2
