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UPDATE: (No casualties)

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_world_story_skin/433242?format=html

Explosion in Ankara not a bomb

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Jun 29, 2004

A large explosion heard near a Turkish Defence Ministry building in the capital Ankara on Monday was not a bomb, state-run Anatolian news agency quoted police as saying.

A security camera exploded at a building used by the Turkish Defence Ministry, Anatolian quoted police chief Ercument Yilmaz as saying.

Ground floor windows were shattered but there were no casualties, Anatolian said.

More than 40 world leaders, including U.S. President George W Bush, are in Istanbul for a NATO summit that began on Monday, and tensions are high in Muslim after a series of small bombings ahead of the summit, blamed on leftists.

Witnesses at the scene told Reuters a large number of police had cordoned off the area.

Anatolian quoted witness Ahmet Sener as saying: "I saw metal pieces near the site of the explosion. I then noticed another package, prepared like a gift package, and alerted police."

A bomb squad also detonated a suspicious package at the site after the initial blast, according to CNN Turk.

A bomb last Thursday killed four people and Turkey's largest left-wing faction, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), claimed responsibility for that attack in a statement sent to Reuters.

Violent protests have also erupted during the summit, which began on Monday and concludes on Tuesday.

In Istanbul, more than 30 people were injured and dozens arrested on Monday in left-wing demonstrations held far from the venue of the alliance summit.

The recent bombings have sent a shudder through Turkey which suffered four devastating suicide bomb attacks in November that killed more than 60 people and wounded hundreds more.

Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network claimed responsibility for those attacks, which targeted Jewish and British sites in Istanbul.