A car bomb attack targeting a government building in the southern city of Adana has killed at least two people and wounded 33 others, officials said.
Five of the injured are reportedly in critical condition.
Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtaş told the state-run Anadolu news agency that the attack occurred in a parking lot near the entrance to his office. He said it was believed to have been carried out by a woman, without saying whether it was a suicide attack.
Demirtaş said the license plate of the suspect’s car had been identified.
Several cars in the parking lot caught fire after the blast, video footage showed. The blast also damaged the government building, according to Anadolu.
Adana Mayor Hüseyin Sözlü said some of the wounded were in serious condition.
“We have experienced one of the most heinous attacks on our state and nation,” he said, adding that Adana Governor Demirtaş was not in his office at the time of the attack.
One of the victims of the attack was identified as Gökhan Aygül, a civil servant at the Seyhan Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry District Office. He was reportedly on temporary duty as a gardener at the governor’s office until Nov.28. The second victim of the attack was also male but he could not be immediately identified.
The attack was the latest in a string of deadly bombings that have rocked Turkey for more than a year. The attacks have been carried out by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“This damnable terror is continuing to target our people,” Ömer Çelik, the minister in charge of European Union affairs and an Adana deputy, said on his Twitter account. “We will continue our struggle against terrorism until the end in the name of humanity.”
He also said the “direct target of the attack was the Adana governor.”
As with previous attacks, Turkish authorities imposed a media ban, barring broadcasts and publication of graphic images or information that might hinder the investigation.
