A suspected suicide bombing has occurred in front of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, causing at least two deaths, according to reports.
Private broadcaster NTV said two security guards were killed.
Two people are also reported to be injured.
The explosion occurred at the entrance used by the embassy personnel and their visitors, CNNTürk reported. A security guard at the X-ray machine at the entrance was killed in the explosion that occurred as the suspected suicide bomber was passing through the machine, the report said.
Bomb experts are at the scene of the blast, Daily News reporter Hüseyin Hayatsever reported from the site of the explosion. Police have taken precautions against the possibility of a second attack, he added.
Daily Vatan reporter Kıvanç El claimed in a televised interview that the police suspected that the assault was a suicide bomb attack and that there were body parts strewn around the site.
El said the blast occured at the embassy building’s second entrance.
Another reporter told NTV, citing U.S. embassy personnel, that there was no damage inside the embassy.
Ambulances and firefighters have been dispatched to the area.
All US embassy personnel have been taken to saferooms in the embassy, a reporter from daily Star told NTV.
The undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, is currently heading to the U.S. embassy, according to reports. Ankara Gov. Alaaddin Yüksel is already on the scene.
On Sept. 11, 2012, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks by al-Qaeda on New York and Washington, heavily-armed militants stormed the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and attacked a nearby CIA safehouse.
Four Americans died in the assault, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, and Obama’s domestic opponents have attacked the administration’s handling of both security prior to the attack and public statements afterwards.
