ADANA, Turkey
Police superintendent, Mikdat Atas, who was among the five people injured Friday from a blast at a police headquarters in the southeastern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, has died at the hospital Monday, officials said.
Atas was being treated at a private hospital in the neighboring province of Adana where a funeral ceremony will be held at the Security Department later in the day.
A police officer and a technician, who were seriously wounded during the blast, are still in critical condition, and being treated in the intensive care unit for extensive burns. Ismail Kuyzu, a 54-year-old technician, died Saturday at a hospital in the province of Malatya, and another police officer, Emrah Kaya, was discharged after being treated at a hospital in Kahramanmaras.
The Friday blast in the shooting range of the headquarters occurred as a team of technicians attempted to fix a breakdown in the target mechanism, investigators said on Saturday.
Initial results indicate that the blast resulted from powder gas compression, Kahramanmaras Governor Sukru Kocatepe had said on Friday, adding that there was no sign showing that the blast was a terrorist attack, and an investigation was launched into the incident.
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