Turkey arrests 5 people suspected of links to Istanbul blast

Mr Hammond said: “Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, is a vital friend of the United Kingdom and critical partner in tackling Islamist extremism, as we have seen so tragically in Istanbul this week”.

Interior minister Efkan Ala said at Wednesday morning’s press conference that their chief suspect was not on any lists of known Isis members. Davutoglu warned against seeing all migrants as potential extremists, which he said would be playing into the hands of the “terrorists”.

Turkish media reports said police had raided a home in an affluent neighborhood of Istanbul, detaining one woman suspected of having links to the Islamic State group, although it wasn’t clear if she was the suspect Ala was referring to. The Foreign Ministry advised Germans after the attack to avoid crowds in public places and outside tourist sites in Istanbul.

But he was not on any wanted lists or worldwide terror watchlists.

Asked whether Turkey would retaliate for the attack with aerial strikes on IS positions, Davutoglu said: “I say this clearly, we would respond to every attack directed against us with the force we see fit”. The state-run Anadolu Agency said 59 people were detained on Tuesday.

Six people were killed, including three children, and 39 wounded in the auto bomb that ripped through a police station in Cinar in Diyarbakir province and then caused an adjacent housing complex for officers’ families to collapse, the local authorities said.

Police on Wednesday removed a cordon preventing access to the area of the attack, which was quickly thronged by media and some tourists, an AFP correspondent said.

German tourism giant TUI said customers who had booked trips to Istanbul can switch destination without paying a penalty. He said Turkey had detained as many as 220 IS suspects in the week prior to the attack.

It was hit by two major bombings a year ago blamed on the group.

In the following days Fadli, who had just entered Turkey from Syria, reportedly lived at his declared address in Istanbul.

The attack on the German tourists, however, was the first time that foreign visitors have been targeted in the historic heart of Istanbul.

Some placed red roses by the obelisk, which appeared to have sustained no damage in the bombing. Berlin said seven injured Germans were being treated in hospital, five of them in intensive care.

Others wrapped football scarves around the railings from popular German teams including Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, an AFP correspondent said.

Turkish newspapers printed words of condolence in German.

Long accused of failing to crack down on IS, Turkey has in recent months moved against jihadist cells operating on its territory, making hundreds of arrests.

The Russian consulate confirmed the arrests to Russian news agency RIA, though it remains unclear if there is a direct connection to the Istanbul attack.

On Wednesday, three more suspected IS members were detained in the southern resort city of Antalya. Of that number, 847 were subsequently arrested, a lot of them foreigners.