Ankara bombing: Turkish police say attacker could be most-wanted missing brother of Suruc bomber

If true, the link would represent a major security lapse

A bomb explodes behind dancing protesters (AFP/Getty)

One of the bombers at a peace rally in Ankara on Saturday may have been the missing brother of a man who carried out a similar attack at Suruc in July, according to reports in Turkey.

Investigators analysing bodies at the scene have determined that one of the perpetrators was a man aged between 25 and 30, reported the conservative Yeni Safak newspaper.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the two blasts, which killed at least 95 people and wounded another 250, but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu suggested Isis could have carried out the attack.

Unnamed security officials, speaking to the Haberturk newspaper, suggested one of the suicide bombers was the brother of the Suruc attacker, who killed 32 youth activists in July this year.

That attack was carried out by Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz, a 20-year-old man of Kurdish origin born in Adiyaman who was believed to have travelled to Isis territories with his brother in 2014.

Police said at the time that they were seeking the elder brother, Yunus Emre, amid fears he might attempt a similar bombing. Some have suggested it would represent a major security lapse if a high-profile terror suspect was able to launch such an attack, the deadliest of its kind in Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government has saught to control media coverage of the bombing as Twitter and other social media sites went down across the country.

State media watchdog the Turkish Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) imposed a ban on broadcasting images of the blast.

A statement by RTÜK released on its official website said that; “The Turkish Prime Minister has imposed a temporary broadcast ban regarding the terror attack conducted in Ankara this morning.”

Mourners and pro-Kurdish politicians marched to the site of the bombing on Sunday morning to leave flowers at the scene, but there were scuffles as police refused them access and diverted them away to a nearby square.

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.