Female suicide bomber strikes Istanbul police station, kills officer

A female suicide bomber entered a police station in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district and blew herself up Tuesday, killing one officer and seriously injuring another.

Authorities said the woman spoke English as she entered the building but her nationality and identity were not immediately known. There have been no claims of responsibility but the attack comes less than a week after the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) said it was behind an earlier grenade attack on police in the capital.

The area around the blast was sealed off Tuesday as forensic experts began working at the scene, in part of Istanbul’s tourist district.

Witnesses say the woman entered the police station claiming she had lost her wallet before detonating a device. Authorities later confirmed the fatality of the bomber and one officer. A second victim was left injured in the assault.

The incident comes just five days after a member of DHKP-C, an outlawed Marxist group, attacked security guards outside the Ottoman-era Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul.

The culprit, named as Firat Ozcelik, hurled two grenades at the police on duty outside the palace but they failed to explode.

DHKP-C said it was behind that attack and warned of further strikes. The group was also behind a suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy last year as well as attacks on Turkish police stations.

Al Jazeera and Reuters