Sussex man tells of Turkish bomb horror

Richard Cheesmar, 43, from Eastbourne, moved to the Turkish city to work.

He was among the first on the scene after suspected al Qaida suicide bombers targeted British interests there.

Two explosions killed at least 27 people including British diplomatic staff member Lisa Hallworth, from Manchester, and Consul General Roger Short. More than 450 were left injured in the attacks.

A number of other Britons are among the dead.

The bombers, driving trucks packed with explosives, struck at the British consulate and the London-based HSBC bank in the heart of the Turkish city.

The attacks came only days after a bloody terrorist strike on Istanbul synagogues which killed 23 people and the two bombers.

Mr Cheesmar, a former pupil of Hampden Park Secondary School and Brighton Polytechnic (now Brighton University) said: "It was terrible.

"As I got nearer the area where one of the suicide bombers had driven straight into the front of the HSBC building with their bombs, all I could see was rubble.

"They were bringing out people in body bags. You could see the blood coming through the bags.

"People were walking around in a state of shock. Police were keeping people away from the rubble so rescue workers could continue their searches.

"I just could not believe the amount of rubble. Every single window was smashed and there was glass everywhere.

"Even side streets well away from the blast were strewn with glass. It was a scene of carnage. All car windows in the vicinity of the bank had been blown in.

"There were some angry conversations with people who wanted to get closer and try to find out what had happened to people they knew."

Mr Cheesmar, a freelance photographer, writer and IT consultant, said he could hardly believe the lively and previously safe city of Istanbul has become a terrorist hotspot.

He was in the Asian sector when he heard what he knew was another suicide bomb following last Saturday's attacks on the synagogues which had put the city on alert.

Mr Cheesmar, who still makes regular trips back to Sussex, said: "The whole city has been on a knife edge since Saturday. I was at home in my flat in Fenerbache when I heard a loud explosion.

"The main blast had been in the Levent area, which is the equivalent of the City of London. The blast I heard was at the British consulate.

"Strangely the roads were quiet apart from emergency vehicles as everyone was taking cover.

"I started taking photographs but was kept back by police and security. I could hardly believe the chaos. I used to work close to the HSBC building and the area was unrecognisable.

"This used to be a perfectly safe city but I would not advise anyone to come here now. This will have a terrible effect on the tourist trade.

"They were saying last night that 27 had died and about 450 were injured but having seen the size of the blast, I believe the numbers could be a lot higher."

Turkish Feryal Earnshaw, 29, was at home in Ryelands Drive, Brighton, when she heard the news.

Ms Earnshaw, who works at the Kimberly Clark European service centre in Trafalgar Place, said she immediately feared the worst because she has many friends and family in Istanbul.

"It's devastating. It was really upsetting as I was watching the TV and saw so many people had been killed. I just went into a panic.

"I have a couple of friends who live in the same district as the British consulate and I have been there many times.

"I didn't even finish watching the news before I started ringing people. I called my friends and family there and I couldn't get through to anyone at first - it was really worrying.

"Luckily, they are all fine but they are in complete shock. They don't even want to go out of their homes.

"The whole place is in chaos. It is so awful, seeing all those people hurt. It's also full of historic buildings which have been damaged."

The first blast in Istanbul was at the Turkish headquarters of HSBC, the world's second-largest bank, shearing off the facade of the 18-storey building and shattering the windows of nearby skyscrapers in the district.

Body parts, the charred shells of cars and broken glass were scattered around a 9ft-deep crater in the street outside the bank. Water gushed out of the top floors of the building.

Bystanders, bloodied and covered in dust, looked dazed as they walked past lines of ambulances. Several people helped carry the limp bodies of victims. Road signs lay on the ground, twisted next to fallen tree trunks.

Another bomb ripped off the wall surrounding the garden of the British consulate in the Beyoglu district, a popular tourist destination with shops, bars, cinemas and restaurants. The US consulate was moved months ago to a more secure location in another district.

Chris Kitrinos, an English teacher, said: "The damage is very extensive. I have been told there are people lying around and I am looking at people lying on the ground dying."

The worst terror bombings in Turkey's history coincided with US President George Bush's trip to Britain and were blamed on Osama bin Laden's terror group.

Of the injured, 110 remained in hospital last night - many of them in a critical condition.

Security forces were on highest alert after the blasts which occurred five minutes apart at about 9am British time.

The "ruthless fanatics" who killed 27 people in Istanbul yesterday will target anywhere in the world, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned today.

As he visited the scene of one of the suicide bomb blasts, Mr Straw said the explosions looked like being the work of al-Qaida "associates".

"I'm afraid to say that with these ruthless fanatics who we now face, everywhere is a target.

"It's been Istanbul over the last week but over the years it has been from New York to Indonesia, to Saudi Arabia, to Morocco.

"This is something which, I'm afraid, is a terrorism that attacks the world and where the targets are across the world."

Mr Straw flew to Istanbul yesterday to view the blast scenes and speak to the injured and bereaved.

Speaking from the bomb site today, he said: "This is an attack on civilisation - it is indiscriminate.

"What we know from our experience in the United Kingdom of terrorism, albeit a different kind of terrorism, is that you have to work very hard with your security forces but above all in your heart and your soul, you have to decide you are going to fight this terrorism."

He said the democracies of Turkey and Britain were "bound together".

"In the British House of Commons yesterday there was overwhelming not only backing for Turkey but support and affection for Turkey."

He said the attacks would only increase "the determination of all of us to see Turkey a full member of the European Union".

President Bush, on his state visit to Britain, said the bombings showed "utter contempt for innocent life".

He said: "The terrorists hope to intimidate, they hope to demoralise. They are not going to succeed."

Both Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush condemned the attacks.

Mr Blair said the attacks demonstrated "the evil these terrorists pose to innocent people everywhere".

"Once again we must affirm that in the face of this terrorism there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace; in attacking it wherever and whenever we can and in defeating it utterly."

"I can assure you of one thing: That when something like this happens today, our response is not to flinch or give way or concede one inch.

"We stand absolutely firm until this job is done, done in Iraq, done elsewhere in the world."

The Queen has sent a message saying that she was "deeply shocked" at the attacks and expressed her sympathy to "all caught up in these evil acts of terrorism".

Scotland Yard is sending 16 anti-terrorism branch officers to assist the investigation.

The Foreign Office has revised its travel advice for Turkey, warning Britons against all non-essential travel to Istanbul.

Stephen Green, HSBC's group chief executive, said a number of the bank staff had been injured and some may have died. However, he said they had no intention of pulling out of Turkey.

Turkey was braced for more terrorist attacks following the two suicide bombings yesterday in which four Britons were among the dead, according to local authorities.

Istanbul governor Muammer Guler said four of the 16 dead at the consulate were British and the death toll was likely to rise.

The Foreign Office has confirmed only two British deaths but a spokesman said today that figure could rise.

According to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, seven people were being questioned over the British consulate and HSBC bombings.

The paper also identified two men as the suicide bombers, Turks 27-year-old Azad Ekinci and Feridun Ugurlu.

Ekinci, a schoolmate of one of the men identified in last Saturday's synagogue bombings, and Ugurlu, travelled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on October 28 before the bombings.

An unidentified caller to a local news agency said that al-Qaida and a militant group called the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders' Front, or IBDA-C, had jointly claimed responsibility for attacks.