ANKARA, May 22: A suspected bomb blast ripped through a commercial district in the Turkish capital Ankara during evening rush-hour on Tuesday, killing five people and injuring at least 60 more.

“Unfortunately, four of our citizens and one Pakistani national were killed,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the scene of the blast.

“More than 60 people were injured. Four of them are Pakistani nationals,” he added.

Mr Erdogan said police investigators were working to determine what caused the explosion in the busy downtown district of Ulus and said there had been no arrests so far.

Earlier, the city’s mayor Melih Gokcek told the CNN-Turk news channel that police believed it was a bomb attack and that two people had been taken into custody after the explosion, although he wasn’t sure if they were suspects.

The NTV news channel said police thought the bomb was made of A-4 plastic explosives, widely used by Kurdish rebels fighting a 22-year insurgency against the Ankara government.

The Anatolia news agency said the blast occurred at 6:45pm (1545 GMT) near a four-storey shopping centre in the heart of the Ulus business district.

A policeman at the scene, which was immediately placed under tight security, told AFP that the suspected bomb was placed at a bus stop packed with people during the evening rush hour.

Sections of the shopping mall’s entrance collapsed from the force of the blast and the windows of nearby buildings were shattered.

The CNN-Turk showed police removing mutilated body parts and a bloodied man being carried into an ambulance.—AFP