Blasts rock Turkey ahead of NATO summit
Thursday 24 June 2004, 16:53 Makka Time, 13:53 GMT
There have been mass protests against the NATO meeting
At least two people have been killed and seven injured in a bomb
explosion which ripped through a bus in Istanbul, days before the city
hosts a summit of NATO leaders.
The bus was passing in front of a hospital in a residential district
of Turkey's largest city when the blast occurred on Thursday, media
reports said.
Only hours earlier, a small bomb exploded outside a hotel in Ankara
where US President George Bush is expected to stay on Saturday night
during a visit to the Turkish capital of Ankara.
Two people, including a Turkish police officer, were injured in the
blast, reportedly caused by a parcel bomb.
The device was hidden in a package at the entrance to the Hilton hotel
carpark, an ambulance official said.
The policeman was inspecting a booby-trapped parcel when it blew up
about 20m from the entrance to the hotel, witnesses said.
Local residents had called the police after spotting a suspicious
package.
The policeman lost a leg, the ambulance official said. A second
policeman is reported to have suffered facial injuries.
The blast also damaged a nearby car and broke windows of neighbouring
buildings.
Heightened security
Tony Blair, Bush and other
alliance leaders are due to meet
Bush is due to arrive in the Turkish capital late on Saturday for
talks with Turkish officials on Sunday before travelling on to the
country's largest city, Istanbul, for the two-day NATO summit which
starts on Monday.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and
other alliance leaders are also scheduled to attend the summit.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said security measures
would be heightened after the blast. Turkish media had been reporting
that 7000 police officers would be on duty in the capital for the Bush
visit.
"Measures will be increased from now on," Sahin said.
Turkish security forces are using concrete barriers to seal off a zone
in the heart of the city and surveillance aircraft are being prepared
to help monitor a no-fly zone over the area.
Concerns about security have grown in Turkey since last November, when
four truck bombings killed more than 60 people in attacks on two
synagogues, the British consulate and a London-based bank.
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