One man died and seven were injured when an explosion rocked a small cafe in the Turkish city of Istanbul this morning, authorities said.
The blast was probably caused by a faulty cooking gas cannister, they said.
Fears of violent attacks are running high in Turkey after a far-leftist suicide bomber was killed in a blast on Tuesday at an Ankara cafe in an apparent botched bombing attempt.
Masonry and glass were strewn across the pavement along one of Istanbul's main thoroughfares in upmarket Harbiye, a district dotted with cafes and hotels not far from the Bosphorus strait that divides Europe from Asia.
Forensic experts investigated the scene as rescue workers searched for people under the rubble.
The blast caused the ground floor to collapse into the cellar, where the body of one kitchen worker was found.
Officials said seven others had been injured, some of them seriously. Rescuers freed one employee with severe burns and rushed him to a local hospital.
"Initial evidence points to an explosion linked to a gas leak," Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told the state-run Anatolian news agency.