Victims tell of bomb horror

Devastation: Jack Straw at the bomb site

British victims of the Istanbul bombings today spoke for the first time about the full horror of the outrage that left 27 people dead and more than 450 injured.


Many of them were only yards from the massive blasts that devastated the HSBC bank and the British Consulate and saw loved ones killed in front of their eyes.

"The world is suddenly turned upside down," said consulate official Hajma Bouakaze-Khan.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today warned that all Britons and British interests at home and abroad were now a target for al Qaeda terrorists.

As he walked around the devastated HSBC bank, the site of one of the two suicide attacks, Mr Straw, visibly shaken, said: "Everybody is now a target. With these ruthless fanatics whom we now face, everywhere is a target."

Turkish police said today they had arrested seven people.

Consul general Roger Short, 59, and his assistant Lisa Hallworth, 38, died instantly when the bomb went off yards from where they were working.

Ms Bouakaze-Khan, 36, from Newcastle, had been in a meeting with Mr Short two hours earlier and had returned to her office in the main building about 30 feet from the blast. She said today: "I was in a temporary office while the consulate was being refurbished.

"There was this big blast. Glass was flying everywhere - there was a great cloud of dust - and this deafening blast. We dived under our desks for cover.

"You just think, what's happened? The world is suddenly turned upside down.

"We looked at each other to see who was hurt. There were some with cuts from the glass, but in my office no one was seriously injured. Then I went outside. There were some people in a really bad way. Some were dead.

"We gathered in a place designated for assembly in case of emergencies and there was a roll call. Roger and his PA were missing."

She added: "The building is completely knocked down, the consul general's office has disappeared. Then emergency services arrived very quickly but there was only so much they could do."

The two suicide bombers who carried out the attacks have been identified by Turkish police as Azad Ekinci and Feridun Ugurlu, both linked to Islamic terrorist group the Eastern Islamic Warrior Front.

The wife of the consul general heard the explosion which killed her husband as she was standing in a shop just yards from the consulate building.

Victoria Short was returning to the building at the time.

Ian Sherwood, the Anglican chaplain to the consulate, said: "The family are extremely broken, of course. Victoria was very close to where the bomb went off.

"Had she walked a little further she'd be dead. She was in a little shop."

At least three Britons were killed when the truck bomb exploded at the gates of the building in the heart of Istanbul. Ten others also died, including two security guards who were inspecting the truck when it exploded.

A British tourist saw a friend "blown to pieces" in front of him. Company director Graham Carter, 34, from Lincoln, brought Hulya Domez to the consulate to get a visa so she could go to Britain.

But moments after they got through security, the bomb went off. As he awaited eye surgery at Istanbul's American Hospital he said: "I was at the consulate gatehouse when I saw this lorry speed through the gates.

"There was an explosion and I saw my girlfriend just go to pieces in my face." He added: "She was gone right in front of me. She was there with me, then she was gone."

The couple, who had been together for four years, had taken a 12-hour bus journey to get to the consulate yesterday morning.

Mr Carter, from Lincoln, was due to have an operation to remove debris blown into his eyes from the blast.

He said: "I was standing talking to the consul guard and Hulya was with me. The last thing I remember seeing was this truck coming through the gates. I remember thinking this is weird and then I just pushed Hulya to the floor and dived to the ground.

"Then there was this loud explosion and whooshing sound and silence for a second."

One man, apparently uninjured but with his trousers blown away, gazed in horror at the scene of devastation.

Andy Kellaway, 40, another staff member, was at his computer but unhurt. He said:"I heard this enormous-bang. The windows came in. It is a big shock." Another survivor, British man Graeme Wick, 38, was left with severe facial injuries.

Speaking from his hospital bed he said: "It was terrible, really terrible. I am still in shock."

Fahrettin Calik was looking out of his office window when a truck loaded with explosives smashed through the British consulate gates opposite.

His left eye destroyed by flying glass, he now lies in an Istanbul hospital wondering if he will lose his sight entirely.

"The monsters who did this will get their punishment in hell," Fahrettin's brother Murat Calik said.

Today the Foreign Office faced uncomfortable questions over why consular staff were using outbuildings close to the road which made them highly vulnerable to any suicide bomber.

Staff were said to have expressed concerns at their safety after the synagogue bombs the previous weekend.

Today it was revealed that the British consulate had already been put on the highest possible state of security alert.

The revelation raises serious questions about preparations made against a possible attack and the level of security at British diplomatic missions around the world.

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