Two people were killed and at least seven others were injured in a car bomb attack near a courthouse in the Aegean coastal city of İzmir on Thursday, according to Turkish media reports and local officials.
One of the victims was a police officer, while the other was a courthouse employee.
Turkish police teams shot dead two suspected attackers and were searching for a third after the attack.
The blast was caused by a car bomb, İzmir Municipality Secretary-general Buğra Gökçe told broadcaster CNNTürk. A fire that broke out after the explosion was extinguished by the fire department.
Hospital sources said seven people had been brought in wounded. Three of them were police officers.
Thursday attack comes less than a week after a gunman shot dead 39 people at a nightclub in İstanbul on New Year’s Day in an attack claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The gunman is still at large.
Police detained 20 suspected ISIL militants thought to be of Central Asian and North African origin in İzmir on Wednesday, in raids Turkish media said were linked to the Istanbul nightclub attack.
Turkey faces multiple security threats. It has been hit by a series of bombings over the past 18 months, some of them blamed on ISIL, others on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
