A car bomb targeting a police vehicle in Istanbul’s Vezneciler neighborhood during the morning rush hour killed 11 people, seven of whom were police officers, while wounding 36 others on June 7.

A bomb-laden car was detonated at around 8:35 a.m. as a police bus was passing near a police station, Istanbul Gov. Vasip Şahin told reporters, in the third major bombing in the country’s biggest city in 2016.

Ambulances and bomb disposal teams were immediately sent to the scene of the attack, while security measures were increased in the area.

Şahin said the dead included seven police officers and four civilians and that the attack had targeted vehicles carrying members of a riot police unit. Three of the 36 wounded were in critical condition, he said.

Six of the killed police officers were identified as Ramazan Kırboğa, Emrah Pekdoğan, Kadir Cihan Karagözlü, Duha Beker and Gökhan Topçü, as well as the bus’ driver, Yaşar Özlem.

Meanwhile, the killed civilians have been identified as Ahmet Bayraktar, Elif Tutuş İnce, Esra Tekin and Hakan Tekin.

Gunshots were also heard after the explosion, a number of news agencies reported.

“We were told that it was police trying to keep people away from the blast scene,” said Mustafa Çelik, 51, who owns a tourism agency in a backstreet near the blast site. He likened the impact of the explosion to an earthquake.

“I felt the pressure as if the ground beneath me moved. I’ve never felt anything this powerful before,” he was reported as saying by Reuters.

There was confusion as to whether attackers had opened fire or whether police officers had been trying to protect colleagues.

The police bus was heading to the Istanbul University for regular duty, according to reports. Exams scheduled for today at the university were cancelled.

The police bus that appeared to have borne the brunt of the explosion was tipped onto its roof on the side of the road. A second police bus was also damaged. The charred wreckage of several other vehicles lined the street.

ARAABINEWS