Bomb blast kills one, injures 14 at Turkish market

A bomb ripped through a marketplace in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Saturday on the eve of a massive secular rally, killing one person and leaving 14 others injured, officials said.
The bomb, planted in a bag and left on a bicycle at the marketplace, went off a day before thousands were expected to gather in Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, for a demonstration in support of the country's secular order.
One man received bad stomach and feet wounds from the blast and died later in hospital, officials at the medical faculty where he was taken told Anatolia news agency.
The blast occurred around 0630 GMT as vendors were preparing their stalls for the day at the open-air market in Izmir's Bornova district, a local police official told AFP by telephone.
Izmir Governor Cahit Kirac said the bomb was planted in a bag and put on a bicycle, which was left at the marketplace the previous evening. "The materials used in the bomb and the reason for which it was planted are not yet known," he was quoted as saying by Anatolia.
The bomb was designed to make a shrapnel effect, the agency said, adding that the police were investigating whether it was on a timer or detonated by remote control.
"The bicycle and the bag were torn into pieces. But we did not see who left the bag there," Hasan Bakan, a market vendor, said. Most of the injured were market traders. There were few shoppers at that hour. The windows of several nearby buildings and cars were shattered.
"It was an attack aimed directly at (killing) people, at a massacre," Bornova Mayor Sirri Aydogan said. Separatist Kurds, far-left militants and Islamist extremists have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.
The mayor and the governor both said they did not believe the blast would scare off people from a planned demonstration in Izmir on Sunday, the latest in a series of pro-secular rallies amid political turmoil over who the country's next president should be. "Around 3,000 police officers will be on duty for the meeting. If need be, we may put the entire Izmir security department on duty," Governor Kirac said.
The leader of the staunchly secularist, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Deniz Baykal, and the chairmen of several other smaller parties were expected to attend the demonstration, organised by civic groups.
Hundreds of thousands of pro-secular Turks have demonstrated since mid-April in Ankara, Istanbul and the western city of Manisa against the prospect of a politician with an Islamist background being elected to the presidency.