(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Turkey said Tuesday it had identified a suspect over a devastating suicide bombing on the border with Syria blamed on Islamic State jihadists, as the government rushed to bolster security on the porous frontier.
Thirty-two people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Monday when a bomb ripped through a crowd of young socialist activists in a mainly Kurdish region preparing to take aid over the border into Syria.
The attack in Suruc was one of the deadliest in Turkey in recent years and the first time the government has directly accused the IS group of carrying out an act of terror on Turkish soil.
In harrowing scenes Tuesday, loved ones of the dead clutched the coffins of the victims in a farewell ceremony in the nearby city of Gaziantep ahead of their burial in towns across Turkey.
"One suspect has been identified. All the (suspect's) links internationally and domestically are being investigated," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in the regional centre of Sanliurfa after visiting the wounded in hospital.
He added there was a "high probability" the attack was caused by a suicide bomber with connections to IS jihadists.
"We expect this investigation to be concluded as soon as possible," he said.
Davutoglu said the death toll had risen to 32 and that 29 injured victims were still in hospital.
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