Two cops injured in Ankara suicide bombing

ANKARA, October 1

Two attackers detonated a bomb in front of Turkish government buildings in Ankara on Sunday in an assault that left both of them dead and two police officers wounded, in what authorities called the capital's first terrorist attack in years.

CCTV footage showed a vehicle pulling up to the interior ministry’s main gate and one of its occupants quickly walking toward the building before being engulfed in an explosion, while the other remains on the street.

The blast killed one of the terrorists and authorities “neutralised”, or killed, the other, the interior minister said of the incident that rattled a central district that is home to ministerial buildings and nearby parliament.

In a speech at the opening of a new parliamentary session hours later, President Tayyip Erdogan called the morning attack “the latest attempt” to inflict terror on Turks.

“Those who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their goals and never will,” he said.

The bomb blast on Ataturk Boulevard was the first in Ankara since 2016, when a spate of deadly attacks gripped the country. Video afterward showed a Renault cargo vehicle parked there, windows shattered and doors open, amid debris and surrounded by soldiers, ambulances, fire trucks and armoured vehicles. — Reuters