EXPLOSIONS AT ISTANBUL HOTELS
The number of the people wounded in the explosions rose to eleven, Turkish Star television reported Monday. The victims include two Dutchmen, two Chinese, and a woman from Ukraine, a Turkmen and a Turkish citizen. Their names have not been announced yet. Several people wounded in the explosion are in serious condition. All the victims have been given urgent medical assistance.
The Pars hotel where two people were killed was the worst damaged by the explosion. A fire broke out on the third floor after the explosion had gone off. Ten minutes before the blast went off an anonymous caller had telephoned the hotel receptionists, warning about the bomb planted in room 305, Anatolian news agency said. Nevertheless, the tragedy has not been prevented. Istanbul police chief C. Cerrah said that all the signs show the explosions were terrorist acts.
At present, police has cordoned off the Sultanahmet and Laleli popular tourist areas in Istanbul that were frequented by tourists from Russia and other CIS countries.
An hour after the explosion at the Istanbul hotels two more explosions were staged at a gas filling station in an outlying city area. The gas filling station was heavily damaged, but there were no casualties.
The two earlier explosions rocked inexpensive hotels, which often host tourists from former Soviet republics, at around 2 a.m., police said.
''It appears to be a terrorist attack,'' AzerTAj correspondent reported conferring to the Anatolia news agency.
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