Confirming eight of the victims as German citizens, Berlin sent out an urgent travel warning to its citizens telling them to avoid gatherings or landmarks in Istanbul and Turkey as a whole. Peru’s foreign ministry said one Peruvian man was killed and a Peruvian woman was among the 15 people who were wounded. It was not known whether the bomber was counted among the dead.
Earlier, Turkish officials had said the bomber was an individual of Syrian origin born in 1988, and an investigation was ongoing to determine his affiliation, although Davutoğlu only said he was a foreign national.
Tuesday’s blast targeted a square in the Sultanahmet district, an area usually crowded with tourists a stone’s throw away from the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.