Posted on 08/27/2006 7:12:33 PM PDT by blam
10 British tourists hurt by bombs in Turkey
By Stephanie Condron and James Burleigh
(Filed: 28/08/2006)
Ten Britons were injured last night in a series of bomb explosions in the Turkish Mediterranean holiday resort of Marmaris. Another bomb exploded in Istanbul. In all 22 people were hurt.
All 10 Britons were taken to hospital and four were said to be in a serious condition.
It is believed that at least one of the Marmaris bombs went off on one of the many dolmuses - minibuses that serve as a taxi service for holidaymakers.
Residents said one exploded near a McDonald's restaurant, another outside a bank and a third in a nearby village.
"My friends phoned me to tell me they had heard big bombs and some people are dead and a lot of people are hurt," a hotelier said.
A British tourist, Rob Laughton, was having dinner at a restaurant in the middle of Marmaris with his wife Susan and friends when they heard a huge explosion. He said that they ran out of the restaurant and "saw a bus with bodies lying around it. We thought: we just don't want to be here. We just ran away." Mr Laughton, 41, who works for a catering firm, and his wife, 46, from Chiswick, west London, had been on holiday in Marmaris for two and a half weeks.
Another holidaymaker, Danielle Pearson, said: "The town was very busy with lots of people just enjoying themselves.
"Suddenly we got calls saying a bus had exploded outside McDonald's. We saw the remains of one bus and there was debris everywhere.
"People were running in all directions and there were ambulances and police cars racing around."
Jill Thornton, of Consett, Co Durham, said her son, Daniel, had telephoned her at home to say that he had been walking in Marmaris with his girlfriend, Laura Stalker, when he saw the result of one of the explosions.
She said that Daniel had told her that he had heard reports that a second explosion had taken place on a bus travelling to the nearby fishing village of Icmeler. Mrs Thornton said: "He has seen one of the buses which has blown up, but he heard that there were three.
"He is only 19 and his girlfriend is only 17. I am panicking. His girlfriend was very upset. Her parents are out there too."
The Istanbul explosion was said to have been caused by a package bomb. The city's police chief, Cemalettin Cerrah, said the device was left beside a school in the Bagcilar district in the city's European quarter.
People with relatives or friends in Maramaris or Istanbul can telephone the Foreign Office emergency helpline on 0207 008 0000.
Muzzie bombs no doubt.
Turkey is the most westernized Moslem country, and that doesn't sit very well with the Islamofascist types. Plus hitting some infidel tourists makes things all the merrier from their perverse point of view.
Keeping low in the bunker here in Caanakale.
All's quiet up here at the entrance to the Dardanelles.
I'm on a business trip. Local TV sucks and it didn't have anything on the news this am about any explosions.
Am going to work now... thanks for the Turkey update.
You're welcome. Have a nice trip but, be mindful of the Islamists.
I could easily see this as being the work of either the PKK or the jihadis. After all, hurting the Turkish tourist industry (especially during a busy season), hurts the Turkish economy (which arguably should make the suspicion lean towards the Kurds). If the islamonuts were to pull something, I'd think they'd choose something more likely to get attention and something with symbolic importance.
Although, the islamowhackos hit that resort in Egypt for that reason (sure Westerners stayed there, but tourism's important to Egypt's economy).
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