‘Child suicide bomber’ blamed after 50 people die in wedding party blast

A child suicide bomber was behind the blast which killed 51 people and wounded dozens more enjoying a wedding party in Turkey. The killer was aged just 12 to 14, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address to the nation. He struck as guests at a Kurdish wedding danced in the streets in the city of Gaziantep, which is close to the Syrian border. Blood stains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the bomb went off while women in white and checkered scarves cried sitting crosslegged and waiting outside the morgue for word on missing relatives.

The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing. There was blood and body parts everywhere.

Witness Veli Can, 25

The attack was the latest in a string of strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants and follows a deadly botched coup last month. Earlier on Sunday, Mr Erdogan had issued a statement denouncing the bombing and saying Islamic State was “the most likely perpetrator”. He said there was “absolutely no difference” between IS, Kurdish rebels and the coup plotters, calling them terrorist groups. “These bloodthirsty organizations and the powers behind them have neither the will nor power to silence the calls to prayer, lower the flag, divide our motherland and break up our nation,” he added.

This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism. We … are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield.

Deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek

Turkey