Irene: “A roar, then the smoke, and we started running”

“We’re fine, we ran away. It was a huge boom: we looked at each other, we were whole. And we started running ». Irene Campari, 39, has chosen to live and work in Istanbul since 2011. He left Vigevano (Pavia) to build his life in the Turkish capital, where he teaches Italian in a private school. And where, two years ago, he met Burak, an environmental engineer. «We had decided to take a tour of Taksim: in Turkey it is a small tradition for families. In addition to the Galata Tower there was an event in the billboard of the week of Italian culture in Istanbul. So, together with Burak and his parents, we drove along the Istiklal to eat a cake ». The European Quarter is the main shopping street on Sundays. And along the way a large part of the population of the city and many tourists pours. «We heard a roar, smoke could be seen a few meters from us. A crowd of people running almost came upon us. We ran too and stopped inside a shop, waiting for the crowd to run out ». Then, on foot, Irene went home, near Dolmabahçe.

Twitter and Instagram are now running slowly in Turkey: the government has banned newspapers from publishing videos or news, and communications between users are made difficult. The line continues to fall. “At the beginning there was talk of a gas leak, but after the words of President Erdoan it is clear that the track followed is that of an attack. We don’t know much though ».

The terrorism trail is followed to clarify the causes ofexplosion that killed at least 6 people and injured 53 on the central Istiklal, in Istanbul. The newspaper reports it Yeni Safak. The head of communication of the Turkish presidency Fahrettih Altun with a statement specifies that he will follow “an accurate, thorough and rapid investigation has started and all the posts will be scrutinized meticulously. All the institutions involved are mobilized to clarify the causes of the explosion that took place today in Istanbul ”. The very strong explosion in Istiklal Street, in the heart of Istanbul, could therefore have been caused by one bomb left in a sack perhaps by a woman or a suicide bomber, writes CNN Turk. But social networks work in slow motion and news is scarce at the moment. «Of course, we are a bit scared because we don’t know how to explain what happened at the moment. Tonight the match was suspended, but there are still a lot of people on the streets ».