![The attack targeted a bus carrying elite police officers in the centre of Istanbul [Reuters]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_ukm-0cbaRZEFNgtr2iZLwWCGyVI0jEzmr7Qe7mgrr8t43u5BQmpx0w9mvaasfAieQJ5bAgXECSq42tbXi-C5_oibHO4c-Ec8PYK4UH62zpwlHlfv7PtaT-J9zlVRr1LDVFn9h7rzz9QGTaZgL6Xed2fJssgUZmWwuKwIryx4fyCYFfbHuiMhwyiDVAZH3XXsA2tB5NSVvUnYc=s0-d "Explosion targets police vehicle in Turkey's Istanbul")
A bomb attack targeting a police vehicle in a central Istanbul district has killed at least eleven people, including seven members of the police force, the city's governor has said.
"Seven police and four citizens lost their lives," Vasip Sahin, Istanbul's governor told reporters at the scene on Monday. Thirty-six people were injured, three of them seriously, he added.
Emre Rende, a freelance journalist reporting from Istanbul, said the "bus was targeted by a remotely detonated car bomb before a second blast believed to have been caused by a gas canister."
"The attack happened close the Grand Bazaar so it might have been done to keep tourists away," he added.
According to state-run TRT news channel, the bus was passing in the Beyazit district of Istanbul.
Ambulances and fire engines were dispatched to the scene.
Turkey is on high security alert after two deadly attacks in Istanbul this year blamed on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, and a pair of attacks in Ankara that were claimed by Kurdish separatists and killed dozens.
The two attacks in Ankara were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) - a splinter group of the better-known outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
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