ISTANBUL (Reuters) ? A suspected bomb blast wounded at least seven people including a police officer in Istanbul on Thursday, according to Turkish newschannels.
The blast occurred near a bus station in Etiler, a residential and shopping district in the city.
Police said they were still investigating the cause. CNN-Turk news channel said it appeared to have been a device planted in a waste bin.
Turkey is due to vote in a parliamentary election on June 12. Security forces are on edge as there has been a rise militant activity in recent weeks related to a long-running Kurdish separatist insurgency.
NTV newschannel reported at least seven casualties, of which three were seriously wounded.
Television images showed one young woman being stretchered to an ambulance with an oxygen mask covering her face.
The site of the blast was cordoned off as white-suited forensic teams combed the area, with droves of police cars and ambulances parked nearby.
According to a resident living nearby, the explosion happened around the tail-end of the morning rush hour, at around 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT).
"It wasn't like gunfire. It was like an explosion," Tuncay Ozdemircan told Reuters Television.
"When I looked out of the window I saw yellow and white smoke rising, and I thought that it was a bomb," he said.
(Reporting by Mehmet Caliskan, Daren Butler and Seda Sezer; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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