Germany shutters Ankara embassy, school amid terror threat

German diplomatic missions and a school in Turkey were closed on Thursday for security reasons, the German consulate in Istanbul said, less than a week after a suicide car bomb attack in the capital.

The measure concerns the German embassy in Ankara as well as the consulate and German school in Istanbul, it said on its website.

The German Foreign Office says the closures were due to a security warning but did not give further details. It appeared that possible indications for the threat were still under investigation.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Berlin that there were “some very concrete indications that terrorist attacks were being prepared against our facilities in Turkey.”

Steinmeier said security is being increased at all facilities and authorities are trying to collect more information. He did not say how long the facilities would be closed.

Sunday’s suicide bombing, which killed 35 people, was claimed Thursday by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical Kurdish group with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Sunday’s attack came three weeks after a similar car bombing in Ankara killed 29 people, also claimed by TAK.

In January 12 German tourists were killed in a suicide attack blamed on the Islamic State group in the heart of Istanbul’s tourist district.

Turkey has suffered five major bombings since July last year, killing more than 200 people, including two explosions in Ankara in less than a month.