'Boy suicide bomber' killed scores at Gaziantep wedding

A boy 'aged between 12 and 14' allegdly carried out Saturday's suicide bomb attack on a wedding party in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, which left at least 51 people dead.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

21 August, 2016

Mourners attend a funeral of some of the bombing victims [Getty]

A suicide bomber who killed at least 51 people at a wedding in the Turkish city of Gaziantep was likely a boy aged between 12 and 14, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has alleged.

At least one suspected Islamic State group militant carried out the attack on the wedding in the city which left scores -including many Kurdish - dead and injured.

"The explosion was the result of a suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 who either detonated (the bomb) or others detonated it," Erdogan said standing before Istabul's city hall in a live televised address.

He also reiterated his assertion that the Islamic State group were the "likely perpetrator[s]" of the attack.

Erdogan added that 69 people were injured in the blast, 17 of them seriously hurt.

The remains of a suicide vest has been found at the scene of the grisly attack in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, the prosecutor's office said in a statement on Sunday, cited by local media.

"Officials went to the scene with police to investigate and at the scene of the incident, they found the remains of a suicide bomb vest," the Gaziantep prosecutor's office said, television channel CNN-Turk reported.

The deadly attack, which took place in a city just 97 kilometers north of Aleppo in Syria.

It comes a month after a coup attempt against the Erdogan regime in Turkey. Turkey's government says that US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen was beind the failed putsch.

In a recently released statement, Erdogan said that there was "no difference" between Gulen, the Kurdish Workers Party [PKK] and the Islamic State group.

The IS group group have intensified their attacks on Turkey in recent months, including launching an attack on Istanbul's airport, killing 45 people and injuring over 200 people.