10 October 2016•Update: 11 October 2016
ANKARA
Dozens of people were arrested at a commemoration event for the 102 victims of last year’s Ankara bombing Monday, a police official said.
Sixty people were arrested when they tried to enter the area where the memorial ceremony was being held outside Ankara’s main train station -- the scene of a double suicide bombing a year ago.
Speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media, the official said the group had been warned by police to leave the area but then attacked officers with sticks, stones and bottles.
Witnesses reported seeing police clash with left-wing groups on roads leading to the commemoration.
Around 1,700 police officers, mostly in riot gear, were assigned to the ceremony. Snipers were posted on rooftops and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
Hundreds of people gathered to mark the tragedy, which saw two Daesh-linked suicide bombers target people on their way to a peace rally in central Ankara on Oct. 10 last year.
Provincial Governor Ercan Topaca placed carnations at the site opposite the train station where the attack was carried out. “We remember the incident with the sorrow that we lived with last year,” he said.
The attack -- the deadliest in modern Turkish history -- left 391 people wounded.
Reporting by Tanju Ozkaya : Writing by Emin Avundukluoglu
