Istanbul's Bosphorus bridge closed briefly over suspicious car

A bridge linking the two parts of Istanbul over Bosphorus was closed for a time on Tuesday over a suspicious car, Turkish media said.

A man reportedly abandoned the car on the bridge's emergency lane and left on another vehicle as the car ran out of gas, the reports said.

The episode, however, raised an alarm as the country is still smarting from a car bombimg attack on Sunday at the heart of Ankara, the country's capital, in which at least 37 were killed.

Bomb disposal experts and a counterterrorism team were sent to the scene and the trunk of the car was detonated, the reports said.

Abandoning vehicles on the bridge, which connects Istanbul's Asian side with its European side, is strictly banned due to security concerns.

The Istanbul police have been put on high alert since the Ankara bombing, as both cities have experienced a string of deadly attacks in recent months. Endit