bbc.com: A suspected suicide attack has killed at least 28 people and wounded nearly 100 others in the Turkish town of Suruc near the Syrian border. The blast occurred in the garden of a cultural centre at about 09:00 GMT, the interior ministry said. Hundreds of young people were staying there to assist in rebuilding work in the nearby Syrian town of Kobane. Turkish officials have said initial evidence indicates it was a suicide attack by the Islamic State (IS) group. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the bombing and described it as “an act of terror”. Suruc houses many refugees who have fled the fighting in Kobane between IS militants and Kurdish fighters. IS overran the town in September last year, but it was retaken by Kurdish forces in January. Kobane: Inside the town devastated by fight against IS The district governor of Suruc, Abdullah Ciftci, said: “The fact that it is a suicide attack increases the possibility that IS is responsible. “We think the attacker was a woman. “Preliminary findings show that she was acting on her own,” he told BBC Turkish. The Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) is reported to have had at least 300 members staying at the Amara Culture Centre. They were hoping to travel to Kobane to take part in rebuilding work there. A photo taken earlier in the day showed members of the group relaxing in the garden. A video released on social media apparently showed the moment of the blast. In the video, a group of young people are chanting slogans while holding the federation’s flags and a large banner with the words: “We defended it together, we are building it together.” Then an explosion rips through the assembled youngsters. Graphic images of the aftermath show bodies littering the ground, with the red flags being used to cover them. A statement from the Turkish interior ministry said: “We call on everyone to stand together and remain calm in the face of this terrorist attack which targets the unity of our country.” A local journalist, Faruk Baran, told BBC Turkish that there was panic in Suruc after the attack, with shopkeepers closing up for fear of a second attack. Suruc residents had feared that they could be IS’s next target ever since the attack on the pro-Kurdish party’s election rally in Diyarbakir on 5 June, he said. Other eyewitnesses told BBC Turkish that in the immediate aftermath of the attack, local council vans roamed the streets and warned people to stay away from crowded areas, announcing that there might be a second suicide bomber around.
