Eleven killed and 36 hurt as police bus blown up near tourist district in Turkey
Seven police and four civilians among the dead in Istanbul terror attack
AT least eleven people were killed and 36 hurt as a car bomb attack ripped through a bus carrying Turkish riot police close to the main tourist district in Istanbul today.
The twisted and blackened wreck of the coach was left tipped over on one side following the huge blast next to a university in Turkey's biggest city.
The dead included four civilians and seven police officers, officials said. Three others were critically wounded.
The bomb targeted a police service shuttle bus carrying officers through the central Beyazit district close to many of the city's top tourist sites including the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia museum and the Topkapi Palace.
Opposite the blast site is a plush hotel favoured by foreign tourists, the Celal Aga Konagi Hotel, a converted Ottoman mansion.
The famed Suleymaniye Mosque is also just a few streets away.
It is not yet known if any foreigners were caught up in the attack.
Other buses in the police convoy could be seen with signs of damage at the scene of the massacre today. Nearby shops had their windows blown out and today's exams at Istanbul University were cancelled.
Television pictures showed bomb disposal experts examining the scene in case of a second unexploded bomb and reports said at least one controlled explosion was carried out.
There were also reports of gunfire as heavily armed police wearing bullet proof vests swarmed the area.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for today's attack, which comes after Turkey has been hit by a sequence of deadly bombings targeting both security forces and tourist sites.
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Two separate blasts in Ankara earlier this year claimed dozens of lives. They were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) - a radical splinter group of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
Last month, at least eight people including soldiers were wounded by a remotely detonated car bomb aimed at a military vehicle in Istanbul that was claimed by the PKK.
Meanwhile, a dozen German tourists were killed on January 12 in a bombing in the heart of Istanbul's tourist district blamed on ISIS jihadists.
At least three Israelis and an Iranian were killed in a March 19 bombing on Istanbul's main Istiklal shopping street which was also blamed on ISIS.
The government has warned there will be no let up in the fight until the PKK is defeated and the militants have in turn threatened more attacks.
But the attacks in Turkey's heartland have had a dire effect on the tourism industry and further violence in Istanbul comes at the worst possible time heading into the key summer season.
Some 1.75 million foreigners came to Turkey in April, down more than 28 percent on April 2015, the tourism ministry said in its latest release.
The fall was the steepest monthly decrease for 17 years and raised fresh concerns about the health of the industry heading into the crucial summer season.
The US embassy in Turkey in April warned of "credible threats" to tourist areas in Istanbul and the resort city of Antalya, in particular to public squares and docks.
Turkey, a member of NATO and the US-led anti-jihadist coalition, appears to have stepped up its operations against ISIS in northern Syria, where the extremists control areas near the border.