Blast outside HSBC banks in Turkey

A small bomb exploded outside British bank HSBC in the Turkish port city of Izmir tonight, slightly injuring a guard, while two…

A small bomb exploded outside British bank HSBC in the Turkish port city of Izmir tonight, slightly injuring a guard, while two other explosions in the capital Ankara and in southern Turkey caused some damage but no injuries, police said.

The bomb broke windows and damaged a garden wall at HSBC. The bank's watchman was slightly injured in the foot.

A second small bomb went off outside another branch of the same bank in the southern city of Adana.

The explosion shattered windows of nearby cars and buildings, the agency said. Another bomb went off on a main street in the capital, close to a Turkish-American culture centre and a government building, police said.

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No one was injured in that explosion and it was not clear if either one of the two buildings were targeted.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks. Autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, militant leftist and Islamic groups are active in Turkey.

The Turkish headquarters of the HSBC bank - along with two synagogues and the British Consulate - was targeted in suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul last year blamed on the al Qaida terrorist network. Those attacks killed 61 people.