Turkey's government said on Sunday that two terrorists carried out a bomb attack in front of Interior Ministry buildings in the capital, Ankara. According to authorities, one of the attackers died in the explosion and the other was killed in a shootout with police.
Two police officers were lightly injured but no one else was killed, the interior minister said.
A powerful explosion outside the interior ministry on Sunday morning was heard for several kilometres beyond the site of the attack.
"One of the terrorists blew himself up. The other was killed by a bullet to the head before he had a chance to blow himself up," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a press statement outside the ministry.
He said the two attackers arrived in a light commercial vehicle around 9:30 am.
The targeted district is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned in the afternoon with an address from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them," Erdogan told the parliament.
No group named
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation had been launched into what he called a "terror attack".
Police cordoned off access to the city centre and increased security measures, warning citizens that they would carry out controlled explosions for "suspicious package incidents" in other parts of Ankara.
Authorities did not identify any specific militant group.
The blast comes almost a year after six people were killed and 81 wounded in an explosion in a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul. Turkey blamed Kurdish militants for that incident.
During a spate of violence in 2015 and 2016, Kurdish militants, Islamic State and other groups either claimed or were blamed for several attacks in major Turkish cities.
(with newswires)
