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Many die in Istanbul blasts
Bomb attacks on the British consulate and the HSBC bank headquarters in Istanbul have left at least 25 dead and about 400 injured.
The attacks are thought to have been carried out by suicide car bombers, and the UK foreign secretary said they bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and associated organisations.
Istanbul is a city in chaos, the BBC's Steve Bryant says.
There is collapsed masonry, shattered windows, burned out cars and general scenes of confusion at the two sites. Much of the city's phone network has been cut.
Hospitals are inundated with hundreds of wounded people, traffic is blocking the roads and crisis officials are asking people to leave the centre to clear the way for ambulances.
Responding to news of the attacks, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said there could be "no holding back" in confronting the "menace" of global terrorism.
US President George Bush said the bombers had shown "utter contempt" for human life.
The explosions come just days after 23 people died in suicide bombings on two synagogues in the city.
The 15-storey headquarters of the London-based bank towers over a busy shopping area, which correspondents say would have been crowded when the explosion occurred at 1110 Turkish time.
The consulate bomb occurred two minutes later.
British consul-general Roger Short is among those missing at the scene of the consulate blast.
Witnesses reported seeing a light-coloured van driving straight at the consulate building before the explosion.
'Organised terror'
A man who called the semi-official Anatolia news agency claimed that Al-Qaeda and the Turkish Islamic militant group IBDA-C had jointly carried out the attacks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abullah Gul said Turkey would not bow to terror.
"We are faced with organised terrorist attacks," he said. "This time it was British interests, last week it was two synagogues."
Trading on the Istanbul stock exchange was suspended after the explosions and the Turkish lira dived on foreign exchange markets.
A group claiming to be linked to al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for the synagogue attacks last Saturday.
It warned that new attacks against the US and its allies were being planned.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3222608.stm
Bomb attacks on the British consulate and the HSBC bank headquarters in Istanbul have left at least 25 dead and about 400 injured.
The attacks are thought to have been carried out by suicide car bombers, and the UK foreign secretary said they bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and associated organisations.
Istanbul is a city in chaos, the BBC's Steve Bryant says.
There is collapsed masonry, shattered windows, burned out cars and general scenes of confusion at the two sites. Much of the city's phone network has been cut.
Hospitals are inundated with hundreds of wounded people, traffic is blocking the roads and crisis officials are asking people to leave the centre to clear the way for ambulances.
Responding to news of the attacks, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said there could be "no holding back" in confronting the "menace" of global terrorism.
US President George Bush said the bombers had shown "utter contempt" for human life.
The explosions come just days after 23 people died in suicide bombings on two synagogues in the city.
The 15-storey headquarters of the London-based bank towers over a busy shopping area, which correspondents say would have been crowded when the explosion occurred at 1110 Turkish time.
The consulate bomb occurred two minutes later.
British consul-general Roger Short is among those missing at the scene of the consulate blast.
Witnesses reported seeing a light-coloured van driving straight at the consulate building before the explosion.
'Organised terror'
A man who called the semi-official Anatolia news agency claimed that Al-Qaeda and the Turkish Islamic militant group IBDA-C had jointly carried out the attacks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abullah Gul said Turkey would not bow to terror.
"We are faced with organised terrorist attacks," he said. "This time it was British interests, last week it was two synagogues."
Trading on the Istanbul stock exchange was suspended after the explosions and the Turkish lira dived on foreign exchange markets.
A group claiming to be linked to al-Qaeda also claimed responsibility for the synagogue attacks last Saturday.
It warned that new attacks against the US and its allies were being planned.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3222608.stm
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