By Xinhua
Ankara : At least 19 people were killed in an explosion in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul on Thursday, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said.
Some 74 people have been injured and hospitalized and four of them were in critical condition, Guler told reporters after visiting some of the injured together with Mayor Kadir Topbas and Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah.
The blast might be caused by fireworks, said Guler, quoted by the semi-official Anatolia News Agency, adding that there was an unlicensed fireworks workshop on the third and fourth story of the building.
“There was a furnace near where the (fireworks) were stored, ” said Guler, “One of the furnaces could have also exploded on a lower floor (of the building) where there was a sock and paint factory.”
According to the report, some witnesses claimed that there had been a small fire on the fourth floor of the building before the explosion occurred.
“Now we have difficulties in identifying the dead people,” noted Guler, adding that they were trying to determine whether the explosion was caused by a central heating boiler.
Rescue teams had uncovered ten bodies from the debris, it added.
Earlier, local NTV reported that an explosion took place in the five-story business center in Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul. Two floors of the five-story industrial complex collapsed during the explosion.