29 people killed in twin suicide bombings outside Istanbul football stadium

At least 29 people are dead and 166 injured after a suicide bombing near a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, the BBC reports.

In twin blasts, a car bomb was detonated outside the Besiktas stadium while a second device targeted police officers in a riot bus stationed in a nearby park.

The first blast was heard at around 10.30pm after Besiktas' 2-1 win at home against Bursasportt in the Turkish Super League match.

While football fans had left the stadium, police officers were still stationed at the scene and made up the largest number of casualties.

Images captured scenes of carnage with the wreckage of a burned out car lying in the road and a truck with smashed windscreen, while the windows of nearby buildings were blown out by the explosions.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing gunfire, sparking fears of an armed attack on police. "It was like hell," Omer Yilmaz, a cleaner at the nearby Dolmabahce mosque told Mail Online. "The flames went all the way up to the sky. I was drinking tea at the cafe next to the mosque."'

Following the attack, armed police sealed off streets around the Vodafone Arena, as a dozen ambulances arrived at the scene to attend to the victims.

In a statement President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed the fatalities saying: "A terrorist attack has been carried out against our security forces and our citizens. It has been understood that the explosions after the Besiktas-Bursaspor football game aimed to maximise casualties. As a result of these attacks unfortunately we have martyrs and wounded."

Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu added: "It is thought to be a car bomb at a point where our special forces police were located, right after the match at the exit where Bursaspor fans exited, after the fans had left."

Condemning the terror attack Sports Minister Akif Cagatay Kilic said on Twitter: "I condemn the cruel terror attack in Istanbul. Those attacking our nation's unity and solidarity will never win."

Bursaspor issued a statement confirming that no fans were among the fatalities adding 'we wish a speedy recovery to our wounded citizens.'

The Besiktas sports club also 'strongly condemned' terrorism and the attack in a statement posted on its website.

The Turkish government has imposed a temporary media ban in the aftermath of the blasts, citing 'national security' concerns and warning broadcasters against sparking "public fear, panic or chaos,that will serve the aims of terrorist organisations," BBC News reports.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in Turkey which has seen a wave of bombings this year by Kurdish militants and Islamic State (IS).

In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, while 57 people, 34 of them children, were killed in August in a suicide attack by an IS-linked bomber at a Kurdish wedding in the city of Gaziantep.

The country has been reeling after a failed military coup on July 15 which was reportedlysparked by US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen who has previously been accused of stirring unrest in the country.