Three people have been injured after a percussion bomb exploded in İstanbul’s busy Mecidiyeköy neighborhood in the evening hours of Saturday. The blast occurred shortly after US and Israeli officials warned their citizens of the threat of an imminent terror attack in Turkey.
According to preliminary reports, the explosion took place on an overpass of a Metrobus station near Çağlayan. The bomb was reportedly left in a bag.
Percussion bombs make a loud noise, but cause little if any damage.
Three individuals have been reported to be injured in the incident. They have been hospitalized at nearby hospitals. Ambulances and police teams have been dispatched to the area.
Earlier on Saturday, the US Embassy in Ankara has issued a statement, warning US citizens against what it called “credible” threats to tourist areas in İstanbul and Antalya.
The warning, which was posted on the embassy’s website, called on the US citizens in Turkey to exercise extreme caution if they are in the vicinity of tourist areas, public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya against which it said there are credible threats.
On Friday, Israel also made a similar warning, urging Israelis to avoid visiting Turkey and in even it called on its citizens in Turkey to leave the country as soon as possible due to terror threat.
Turkey has been shaken by many terror attacks in big cities such as İstanbul and Ankara over the past months which claimed the lives of more than a hundred people.
Last month, a suicide attack in İstanbul’s central Taksim neighborhood claimed the lives of four people, three Israelis and one Iranian.
The attack was perpetrated by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant, according to officials.