Ankara - Parts of downtown Ankara were evacuated Tuesday after police discovered a van packed with sodium nitrate parked in a a multi-storey car park. Governor Kemal Onal said the suspected explosive device was discovered in the Kurtulus district of Ankara by police with bomb- sniffing dogs. The van was displaying fake number plates, Onal said.
The private television station NTV later reported that the van was carrying 300 kilogrammes of sodium nitrate, a chemical compound that can be used as a fertilizer or as a part of an explosive device.
In November 2003 Turkish nationals with links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network carried out four bomb attacks in Istanbul, ramming vans packed full of explosives made from sodium nitrate into two synagogues, the British consulate and the Istanbul headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank.
Onal said police in Ankara started sweeps of the city on September 10, ahead of the anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the September 12 anniversary of the 1980 military coup in Turkey.
The discovery of the suspected explosive device comes almost four months after a suicide bomb blast in Ankara killed seven people, including the bomber, and left around 100 people injured.
The suicide bomber identified as being responsible for the May 22 blast was believed to have acted alone, authorities said at the time.
