Blasts kill 97 at Turkey peace rally

Two powerful bombs exploded near the main train station in Ankara yesterday morning, targeting a peace rally and causing carnage, killing at least 97 people and injuring more than 400 others in the deadliest attack in the Turkish capital in recent memory.

The explosions, which caused chaos and bloodshed, took place during a peace march involving, among others, the pro-Kurdish HDP, or People's Democratic Party.

The casualties, reported by the interior ministry, consisted primarily of people gathered outside the main train station to attend a lunchtime demonstration to call for an end to the renewed conflict between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish government.

About 14,000 people were in the area. Two suicide bombers are believed to have caused the blasts, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised address to the nation.

"In total 97 people have been murdered, 68 of them died right after the blast, whereas 29 of them were severely wounded and sent to the hospitals, where they lost their lives," said Dr. Huseyin Demirdezen, a member of head council of Turkish Medical Association.

The attack came before national elections, scheduled for November 1.

A video on social media shows a ring of young people dancing and singing before an orange blast erupts in the background. The video ends with the crowd running away from the blast.

Following the attack, for which no group has claimed responsibility, bodies lay in front of the station on Hipodrum Street and paramedics tended to the injured as a police helicopter circled overhead.

Video showed bodies strewn on sidewalks, with injured people lying on the ground with bystanders trying desperately to help them.

Protest banners and flags littered the ground. Members of the public helped carry the injured to ambulances and buses to take them to hospital.

The blasts were so powerful they shook high-rise office buildings at some distance. The death toll is expected to climb, reports CNN.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the "heinous attack", saying it was aimed at "our unity and our country's peace."

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there were "strong signs" that the attack had been carried out by two suicide bombers.

With the country shattered by the deadliest attack in the history of modern Turkey, Davutoglu declared three days of national mourning.

There were scenes of chaos after the blasts, as ambulances raced to get to the wounded and police cordoned off the area around the train station.

"We heard one huge blast and then one smaller explosion and then there was a great movement and panic. Then we saw corpses around the station," said Ahmet Onen, 52.

"A demonstration that was to promote peace has turned into a massacre, I don't understand this," he said, sobbing.

Turkish police fired in the air to disperse demonstrators angered by the deaths of their fellow activists from the scene, an AFP correspondent reported.

Davutoglu said no group had claimed responsibility for the bombings. But he said groups including Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) were capable of carrying out such an attack.

Amateur footage broadcast by NTV television showed smiling activists holding hands and dancing and then suddenly falling to the ground as a huge explosion went off behind them.

Reports said that hundreds of people in Ankara had rushed to hospital to donate blood for the victims.

The blast was the deadliest in the history of the modern Turkish Republic, surpassing the May 2013 twin bombings in Reyhanli on the Syrian border that killed over 50 people.

With international concern growing over instability in the key Nato member, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini urged Turkey to "stand united against terrorists."

French President Francois Hollande condemned the "odious terrorist attack" while Russian President Vladimir Putin passed his condolences to Erdogan.

The attack comes with Turkey on edge ahead of November 1 polls and a wave of unrest over the past few months.

An attack in the predominantly Kurdish town of Suruc on July 20 targeting pro-HDP activists and blamed on IS jihadists killed 32 people and wounded a hundred others.

The militant PKK accused Ankara of collaborating with ISIS and resumed attacks on the Turkish security forces after observing a two-year ceasefire.