(CHINADAYLI) Turkish police are seeking a young man suspected of involvement in a foiled bomb attack in Ankara which officials said could be the work of separatist Kurdish rebels, Turkish newspapers reported Thursday. Citing security sources, newspapers described the suspect as a shaggy-looking man with some facial hair who appeared to be aged 23 or 24 and who spoke Turkish with an Arabic accent.
Police have drawn up a compsote sketch of the suspect and sent it to all the 81 provinces in the country, the mass-circulation Hurriyet daily reported. The image was not distributed to the press.
Witnesses said the suspect had driven a mini-bus packed with explosives to a multi-story car park in the city center Monday, a day before sniffer dogs detected the vehicle and police defused the bomb, newspapers said. The suspect told the attendants that he had brought in goods to sell at a nearby market.
Press reports said the van contained up to 600 kilograms of explosives which the attackers planned to set off through a mobile phone.
The Ankara governor's office said that the explosives found on the vehicle were similar to those employed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2005 and 2006.
The PKK has been fighting the Ankara government for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast since 1984. More than 37,000 people have been killed in the conflict.