REPORT FROM ISTANBUL: Victims honoured at attack site, life returning to normal

(Patria) - In Istanbul's Istiklal Street, where yesterday's bomb attack killed six people, citizens are leaving flowers at the site of the attack.

A Patria reporter reports that it is calm in Istanbul this morning, but a larger number of police officers with long guns are still present.

Six people lost their lives and 81 people were injured in the explosion in Istiklal Street in Istanbul, two of them seriously. As stated by Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya, 50 people were discharged after completed treatment, while 31 injured people remain hospitalised.

Among the dead are two fathers and their two daughters, as well as a married couple.

Istiklal Street is open and flowers are being laid at the attack site today. Strong police forces are present on both sides of the street, and police are checking bags. There are no restrictions and everything is proceeding completely normally. A large number of news teams are on the scene reporting the day after the attack.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on Monday blamed Kurdish militants for the explosion that killed six people in Istanbul's largest shopping street, and announced that police had arrested 22 suspects, including the person who planted the bomb.

Soylu stated that the order for the attack on Istanbul's Istiklal Avenue was issued in Kobani, a city in northern Syria, where Turkish forces have been conducting operations against the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG in recent years.