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Istanbul cancels soccer derby on security fears

March 20, 2016 22:14 IST

IMAGE: Riot police walk outside the Turk Telekom Arena in Istanbul. Photograph: Murad Sezer/Reuters.

A soccer derby between Turkish sides Fenerbahce and Galatasaray in Istanbul was cancelled and the stadium evacuated hours before the match was due to start on Sunday evening after the local governor's office said "serious intelligence was obtained".

His office gave no further details.

The match was postponed "due to the assessment of serious intelligence obtained and in line with demand and consensus of the football clubs", the governor's office said.

On Saturday a suicide bomber killed four people and wounded dozens more in central Istanbul in the fourth such attack this year that has brought the death toll to more than 80 people.

Sunday's football match had been due to start at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) but fans had started to trickle in much earlier. A Reuters photographer at the scene saw fans leaving after the stadium had been evacuated.

A new date would be announced in the coming days, the Turkish Football Federation said in a statement on its website.

The interior minister has indentified Saturday's bomber as a Turkish member of the Islamic State militant group who was from the southern province of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.

Source: REUTERS
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