Death toll in Ankara attack rises to 102: Prosecutors

AFP , Friday 16 Oct 2015

Ankara Blast
A woman reacts at the site of an explosion in Ankara, Turkey. (Photo: AP)

The death toll from the double suicide bombing in Ankara last weekend now stands at 102, prosecutors in the capital said on Friday, raising the previous official toll of 99 people.

"With one more citizen who lost his life (on Friday), the death toll in the incident has been confirmed as 102," the chief prosecutor's office said in a statement.

All but one has been identified and their bodies have been handed over to their relatives, the statement added.

It said a total of 13 people have been detained in relation to the attack, it added.

"Key tips and information about the suspects have been obtained in the widening investigation," it said.

In the worst attack in modern Turkey's history, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of peace activists in the capital Ankara on Saturday.

Turkish media reports said Wednesday that the two bombers have been identified as Yunus Emre Alagoz, the brother of the man who carried out a similar attack in the town of Suruc in July killing 34, and Omer Deniz Dundar who had twice been to Syria in recent times.

The government said ISIS was the prime suspect in the bombing but has also refused to rule out that Kurdish or leftist militants could be involved, even though most of the dead were Kurdish or leftists.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Friday the perpetrators of the attack have been identified "99 percent".

"But we know that it's not all about some people who blew themselves up. There are a lot of other people who are involved... and we are working to find them in the shortest term possible," he said.

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