Turkey: Explosion near the court in Izmir

Jan. 5, 2017 (EZ) Turkey: Two people have been killed in an explosion near a courthouse in Izmir. Police shot and killed the two attackers after an exchange of fire. While hunted a third person.

Shortly before 16:30 local time, an explosion occurred in a million city of Izmir in western Turkey. Several ambulances were sent to the scene. A dozen people have been injured. At 17:50 local time reported two people have died as a result of the explosion, a police officer and an officer of the court.

Video showed pictures of a car that was burning outside a courthouse in central Izmir. According to a local official was probably a car bomb that caused the explosion.

Police are also looking for a third suspect. According to the AP, the person to have been wearing a black coat and was reported still a few hours after the attack to be released.

After the attack, police found a machine gun, a grenade launcher and eight hand grenades, according to the city's governor Erol Ayyildiz. The governor also says that police at the court at the time managed to stop an "even more serious attack" on the court.

Including Erol Ayyildiz Turkey’s officials put the blame for the attack on the Kurdish guerrilla group PKK. The Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said that it planned a major attack.

The second car was beleived to be detonated near the court, according to the governer it had been destroyed in a controlled explosion.