The man who put the bomb in Taksim was arrested.

At least six people have been killed and 81 injured in an explosion in an area frequented in downtown Istanbul, Turkish authorities have said.

The blast occurred about 4:20 a.m. local time Sunday on a shopping road in the Taksim Square area.

And now, reportedly, a suspect has now been arrested, the Turkish police chief has said, respectively.

Vice President Fuat Oktay said earlier that the blast was thought to be a terrorist attack carried out by a woman.

Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed that the authors will be punished.

Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul, he condemned what he called the low-assed “attack”.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag was quoted as telling Turkish media that a woman was sitting on a bench in the area for more than 40 minutes, leaving just minutes before the explosion occurred.

And Monday morning, Interior Minister Sulejman Soylu has indicated that a person suspected of leaving the bombing had been arrested by police and accused the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of responsibility.

The PKK is a militant group calling for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. The EU and the US consider it a terrorist organisation, the BBC writes.