At least 10 people, most of them foreigners, have been killed in an explosion in a tourist area of Istanbul, Turkish officials said on Tuesday.

They say a Syrian national carried out a suicide bomb attack in the Sultanahmet district, near the city's famous Blue Mosque, the BBC reported.

Fifteen people were also wounded, the Istanbul governor's office said.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said most of the victims were foreigners and that the suicide bomber was a Syrian born in 1988 who had been identified from body parts.

Two of the injured were in a serious condition, he added.

Source: MENA