A destroyed van is pictured near a Turkish police bus which was targeted in a bomb attack in a central Istanbul district. (Reuters Photo)
A car bomb ripped through a police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding 36 near the main tourist district, a major university and the mayor's office.
The car was detonated as police buses passed, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin told reporters, in the fourth major bombing in Turkey's biggest city this year. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kurdish militants have staged similar attacks, including one last month in Istanbul.
"A car-bomb attack was made against vehicles carrying our rapid-response police and passing by on the road, resulting in seven police and four civilians losing their lives," Sahin said.
Three of the 36 wounded were in critical condition, he added.
The blast hit the Vezneciler district, between the headquarters of the local municipality and the campus of Istanbul University, not far from the city's historic heart. It shattered shop windows and scattered rubble over nearby streets.
Fire engines stand beside a Turkish police bus which was targeted in a bomb attack in a central Istanbul district. (Reuters)
Kurdish militants, ISIS and radical leftists have all staged attacks in Turkey recently.
A Reuters witness saw what appeared to be two police vehicles hit, one of them on its side next to the road. Gunshots were heard in the area after the blast, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Broadcasters showed armed police in the street near to the site where the blast struck. Haberturk said eight people were wounded.
A spokesman at police headquarters in Istanbul was unable to provide information on the incident when reached by phone.
Turkey has suffered a spate of bombings this year, including two suicide attacks in tourist areas of Istanbul blamed on ISIS and two car bombings in the capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a Kurdish militant group.
© Thomson Reuters 2016