Ankara - Parts of downtown Ankara were evacuated Tuesday after police discovered a van reportedly packed with sodium nitrate parked in a a multi-storey car park. Governor Kemal Onal said a 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 Mercedes Vito van was carrying 300 kilos of sodium nitrate, a chemical compound that can be used as a fertilizer or as a part of an explosive device.
Ankara police chief Ercument Yilmaz refused to answer any questions on what had been discovered inside the van, merely saying that the investigation at the scene was finished and that a statement would be made after laboratory tests were made.
In November 2003 Turkish nationals with links to al-Qaeda 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. More than 60 people were killed and hundreds injured in the attacks.
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.
