A suspected member of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was detained yesterday following five bomb attacks in 24 hours in Turkey that killed three people and injured scores of people, state news agency Anatolian reported.
The suspect was planning an attack in the major port city of Izmir, the agency said. Other people were detained for helping the suspect, and police also seized plastic explosives in the operation, it said.
Yesterday's blast in the coastal city of Antalya, which killed three people and wounded dozens, came less than 24 hours after three bombs in Marmaris injured 21 people and a device in Istanbul wounded six people. The attacks may well be a concerted campaign by Kurdish militants to damage the country's multimillion euro tourist industry.
The first bomb blew up just before midnight on Sunday in a crowded minibus in Marmaris. "All of a sudden there was a flash, lots of noise, lots of screaming," said British tourist Sarah Wilson, who was sitting at the front of the bus with her eight-year-old son, Jamie.
"I felt a hot wind against the back of my legs, and sudden pain, but at least my son wasn't hurt."
Shop owner Korkut Bas said: "At first I thought a tire had exploded, but then I saw the blood. All of us rushed out to help."
Local officials said that two other bombs placed in rubbish bins in Marmaris failed to explode.
Yesterday's bomb in Antalya, a resort particularly popular with Germans and Russians, appears to have been much larger.
Although officials continued to refuse to attribute blame for the attacks, responsibility for the Antalya bomb was reportedly claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a shadowy Kurdish militant organisation that appeared in 2004.
Debate still rages among experts as to TAK's relationship with the much more powerful PKK, a separatist guerrilla group which has been at war with Turkey since 1984. But bomb attacks on tourist hotspots appear to be a signature of TAK, and the group has long talked of its intention to sabotage Turkey's tourist industry, worth almost €20 billion in 2005.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it had no reports of Irish people being injured. The department also said it was not advising against travel to Turkey but that people needed to be vigilant. "The threat from terrorism in Turkey remains high and the frequency of attacks by terrorist groups has increased in the last year. Further attacks, including in tourist areas, could well occur," it added.
Waterford girl Tara Whelan (17) was among five people killed in a bomb in Kusadasi in July last year.