ANKARA, 17 July 2005 — A bomb blast tore apart a minibus yesterday as it carried people to a beach in a popular Aegean resort, killing five people including a British and an Irish tourist, officials said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the explosion was the second to target a Turkish tourist resort in a week, raising the possibility that militants are trying to undermine Turkey’s lucrative tourism industry, which had expected to welcome more than 20 million visitors this year.
The blast in the coastal city of Kusadasi, a favorite with British, Irish and German tourists, reduced the bus to a scorched, twisted heap of metal. Thirteen people were injured in the attack, including five Britons.
News photos showed a man’s charred body draped over the twisted remains of a seat and an injured woman lying on the road, just a few meters from the beach. Civilians rushed to the bus after the attack and carried the injured away from the burning wreckage.
Police quickly boosted security in the town, searching cars at the entrance to Kusadasi. Sniffer dogs patrolled the town’s center.
Early police reports had said that a female suicide bomber had carried out the attack. Police officials said those reports were issued after investigators discovered that the torso of a woman on the bus was completely torn apart, leading them to speculate that she had been carrying the bomb.
