Turkey's interior minister said on Wednesday the suicide bomber in an attack which killed 10 people in Istanbul's historic tourist district a day earlier was not on any wanted list but had registered with Turkey's immigration authorities.
Efkan Ala said the man's fingerprints were on record with the Turkish authorities, when asked about a report in the Turkish media that the man had registered at an immigration office in Istanbul a week ago.
"Your assessment that his fingerprints were taken and there is a record of him is correct. But he was not on the wanted individuals list. And neither is he on the target individuals list sent to us by other countries," Ala told a news conference.
Russian nationals arrested over IS links
Turkish authorities have detained three Russian nationals suspected of links with IS following a suicide bomb attack in Istanbul that killed 10 tourists, media reports say.
A suicide bomber thought to have crossed recently from Syria killed nine German and one Peruvian tourists on Tuesday in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet Square, a major tourist draw, in an attack Turkey blamed on Islamic State. Fifteen people were also hurt in the attack.
Russia's Consulate General in the Mediterranean city of Antalya said three Russians had been detained over suspected connection to IS, Russian state news agency RIA said.
Police also seized documents and CDs during a search of the premises where the suspects were staying, Turkey's Dogan News Agency said. It was not immediately clear when the detentions occurred.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Istanbul blast but Islamist, leftist and Kurdish militants, who are battling Ankara in southeast Turkey, have all carried out attacks in the past.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to offer condolences and vowed Turkey's fight against IS, at home and as part of the US-led coalition, would continue.
'Media blackout' reports untrue
TRT World reporter Charlotte Dubenskij told SBS News via Skype that reports of a “media blackout” were untrue after a suicide bomber killed 10 people in Istanbul.
Ms Dubenskij says that while Turkish authorities put a ban in place it was limited.
“That ban was about showing the actual moment of the explosion out of respect for those that are dead,” she said. “Actually there’s been no ban on reporting anything here in Turkey.
“In my experience and certainly with my network there’s been no banning and in fact we have led pretty much throughout the day with this story which is centred on the city that we live in.”
Journalists have been reporting on Twitter that Turkish authorities have been restricting media coverage.
'IS bomber' blamed for attack
A suicide bomber who killed at least ten people in Istanbul is thought to have been a Syrian member of the jihadist group IS.
All of those killed on Tuesday in Sultanahmet square, near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia - major tourist sites in the centre of one of the world's most visited cities - were foreigners, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
A senior official said nine of the victims were German.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the bomber was believed to have recently entered Turkey from Syria but was not on Turkey's watch list of suspected militants.
He said earlier that the bomber had been identified from body parts at the scene and was thought to be a Syrian born in 1988.
Davutoglu said he had spoken by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to offer condolences and vowed Turkey's fight against Islamic State, at home and as part of the US-led coalition, would continue.
"Until we wipe out Daesh, Turkey will continue its fight at home and with coalition forces," he said in comments broadcast live on television, using an Arabic name for IS.
He vowed to hunt down and punish those linked to the bomber.
Several bodies lay on the ground in the square, also known as the Hippodrome of Constantinople, in the immediate aftermath of the blast.
People believed to be German tourists that were targeted at an explosion in the historic Sultanahmet district are escorted back to their hotel in Istanbul, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. Source: AAP
It was not densely packed at the time of the explosion, according to a police officer working there, but small groups of tourists had been wandering around.
"This incident has once again shown that as a nation we should act as one heart, one body in the fight against terror. Turkey's determined and principled stance in the fight against terrorism will continue to the end," President Tayyip Erdogan told a lunch for Turkish ambassadors in Ankara.
Norway's foreign ministry said one Norwegian man was injured and was being treated in hospital. The Dogan news agency said nine Germans and one Peruvian were also wounded.
Turkey, a NATO member and candidate for accession to the European Union, is part of the US-led coalition against IS fighters who have seized territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, some of it directly abutting Turkey.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Islamist, leftist and Kurdish militants, who are battling Ankara in southeast Turkey, have all carried out attacks in the past.
"We heard a loud sound and I looked at the sky to see if it was raining because I thought it was thunder but the sky was clear," said Kuwaiti tourist Farah Zamani, 24, who was shopping at one of the covered bazaars with her father and sister.
The dull thud of the blast was heard in districts of Istanbul several kilometres away, residents said.
Turkey has become a target for IS, with two bombings last year blamed on the radical Sunni Muslim group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara, the latter killing more than 100 people.
Violence has also escalated in the mainly Kurdish southeast since a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has been fighting for three decades for Kurdish autonomy.
