Time bomb found under bridge in Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Police on Wednesday carried out a controlled explosion of a time bomb found under a bridge linking the two banks of the Golden Horn, an inlet of the Bosporus, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Traffic on the bridge was suspended and a security cordon thrown round the area as bomb disposal experts examined a suspect package, which they concluded was a bomb, Anatolia said.
Anatolia quoted Istanbul security chief Celalettin Cerrah as saying the bomb was similar to one found earlier the same morning in a depot belonging to a local public transport company, Anatolia reported.
Cerrah added that if the bomb had gone off it would not have caused damage to the bridge. He did not say whether there had been any claims of responsibility.
He refused to make an official comment on the incident.

04/27/2005 09:26 GMT