Explosion outside Istanbul police station

At least one person killed and several wounded after explosion in Sultangazi district of Turkey's largest city.

 

A suicide bomber threw a grenade into a police station in a suburb of Turkey's largest city Istanbul and then blew himself up, killing at least one police officer, the city's police chief says.

At least seven people were wounded in the attack on a police station in the city's Sultangazi district, said Huseyin Capkin, the Istanbul police chief, on Tuesday. 

"First [the attacker] threw a grenade, then blew himself up at the entrance of the police station, where the X-ray machines are located," Capkin told reporters at the scene.

"The policeman working at the entrance was killed. Another four personnel were wounded, as well as three others who are civilians," he said, adding that the attacker was around 25 years of age.

The front doors of the police station were destroyed in the blast, and the ceiling partially collapsed. Medics ferried the wounded to a local hospital while armed police sealed off streets around the building.

Sultangazi is a largely residential working class district on the northern edge of central Istanbul.

There was no claim of responsibility and it was not immediately clear whether the attacker had acted alone.

-Bill Ober