Hundreds gather in Turkey to remember victims of suicide blasts

Hundreds of people have gathered in central Ankara to remember the victims of twin suicide blasts that struck the Turkish capital one week ago.

The crowd stood in silence at 10.04am, the time the bombs went off on October 10, killing more than 100 people.

They held up signs bearing the names of the victims along with photographs and banners.

The bombings struck at the heart of the capital just weeks before Turkey holds a national election on November 1 following an inconclusive poll in June and after a summer of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives.

Turkey's ruling AK Party has suspended its rallies until Friday in response to the double suicide bombings that killed scores of people in Ankara.

Speaking at a news conference, party spokesman Omer Celik said some of the party's subsequent rallies ahead of next month's parliamentary elections would be held under the banner of "unity against terror".

Earlier, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which said it was targeted in the attack, said it may also cancel further rallies.

Nato has urged Turkey to be "proportionate" in its response to terrorist attacks even though it has suffered from crises in the Middle East more than any other Nato member.

Speaking in Norway after a twin suicide bombing in the Turkish capital Ankara which killed at least 97 people, Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said: "They (Turkey) have seen several terrorist attacks.

"They have the right to defend themselves, but I of course expect Turkey to be proportionate in the way they respond."

Turkey's Prime Minister has rejected claims his country is being drawn into the crisis in Syria.

Speaking about the suicide bomb attacks at the weekend which are believed to have been carried out by Islamic State militants, Ahmet Davutoglu said they were designed to "cast a shadow" over the country's forthcoming elections.

"These attacks won't turn Turkey into a Syria," Ahmet Davutoglu said in an interview on Turkish television on Monday.

He added that Turkey would hold talks with Russia and Iran to work towards a political solution in Syria but would not take a foreign policy stance which "legitimises the Syrian regime".

The attacks in Ankara that killed scores of demonstrators were carried out by suicide bombers, Turkey's Prime Minister said.

Speaking on Turkish television, Ahmet Davutoglu said that Islamic State was the focus of investigations into the twin suicide bombing which were an attempt to influence the outcome of parliamentary elections next month.

He added that investigators were close to identifying one of the suspected bombers.

The Prime Minister, whose office said 97 people were killed, added that steps would be taken if security failures were found to have contributed to the bombing.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which said it was targeted in the attack, has put the death toll at 128, and suggested it may cancel further rallies ahead of the 1 November poll.

Thousands of people gathered near Ankara's main railway station on Sunday, close to the scene of the twin bomb attacks which killed an estimated 128 people.

Government opposition groups chanted "Murderer Erdogan", "murderer police", blaming the president for the worst terrorist attack in the country's history.

Turkey said it believes the so-called Islamic State group to be behind the attacks with state TV saying 43 people had been detained in dawn raids across the country.

The Queen has said she is "shocked and saddened" by the suspected suicide bombings thought to have claimed 128 lives in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Writing to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Queen offered her "heartfelt sympathy" to the Turkish people following Saturday's attacks.

She said: "I offer my sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathy to the Turkish people at this time.

"I, along with people across the world, have been shocked and saddened by Saturday's attack in Ankara and my thoughts are with all those affected by these terrible events."

Two blasts in the Turkish capital Ankara over the weekend killed at least 128 people, according to officials.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party said that it has been able to identify all but eight of the body's from the attack on Saturday.

Previous estimates of fatalities from the prime minister's office said that 95 people had been killed in the suspected suicide bombings. A further statement released Sunday morning that 160 people were still being treated in hospital, 65 of them in intensive care.

• Security sources believe Islamic State carried out Ankara attack

Turkish security sources have said "all signs" point to the so-called Islamic State being responsible for twin bombings in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Two senior sources told Reuters News their investigations were focused on IS, following similarities between the attack and a suicide bombing in July in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "This attack was in the style of Suruc and all the signs are that it was a copy of that attack ... the signs point to ISIL."

A second official said: "All signs indicate that the attack may have been carried out by ISIL. We are completely focused on ISIL."

Scuffles between police and pro-Kurdish politicians and other mourners have broken out in Ankara after officers prevented them laying flowers at the site of two suspected suicide bombings that killed 95 people yesterday.

Turkey declared three days of mourning following Saturday's near-simultaneous explosions in Ankara that targeted a peace rally attended by activists, labour unions and members of the pro-Kurdish party.

The party's co-leaders, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, planned to hold a memorial for the victims on Sunday but they were held back by police who insisted investigators were still working at the site.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks - Turkey's deadliest attack in years, but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Kurdish rebels and Islamic State militants were the most likely culprits.

• Footage appears to show moment of Ankara explosion