Bomb blasts rock Turkish resorts

ISTANBUL - Security has been tightened on Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts as police hunt those responsible for a series of bombings in popular tourist spots.

Police are seeking two suspects over an explosion in the resort town of Antalya that left three dead and wounded at least 20 yesterday. The blast came hours after at least 27 people were wounded when bombs exploded in Istanbul and the resort of Marmaris.

A Kurdish militant group linked to the banned PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) claimed it carried out the blasts.

"We had warned before, Turkey is not a safe country. Tourists should not come to Turkey," said the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (Tak) website.

Police said they had arrested a man in Izmir accused of being involved in a failed plot to bomb the western coastal town. The Turkish state news agency said the man was from the (PKK) separatist group.

It said other people were detained for helping the suspect and that plastic explosives were seized in the operation.

The Turkish economy is heavily reliant on tourism, which Kurdish separatists have repeatedly threatened to target.

Most of those wounded in Marmaris - including 10 Britons - were on a minibus ferrying local people and holidaymakers along the main street.

On Monday, Istanbul was also hit by a roadside bomb, which wounded six Turks.

Both Marmaris and Antalya are popular with European and Russian holidaymakers.

The attacks are the latest in a wave of similar bombings in Turkey in recent years, blamed on either Kurdish separatists, Islamic militants or left-wing extremists.

Four people, including three foreigners, were killed in an explosion in Antalya in June. There was doubt over investigations that blamed a gas canister.

ATTACKS THIS YEAR

* Yesterday: 3 killed, 20 wounded in Antalya
* Monday: 21 wounded in three blasts in Marmaris
* Monday: Six wounded in blast in Istanbul
* June 26: 4 killed, 25 wounded in Antalya
* April 17: 31 wounded in Istanbul
* April 1: 1 killed, 13 wounded in Istanbul
* February 10: 1 killed, 16 wounded in Istanbul

- REUTERS