Blast rocks a metro station in Istanbul

An explosion caused by a homemade bomb rocked an Istanbul metro station on Tuesday, triggering panic in the evening rush hour and wounding six people.

The local mayor and the state-run Anatolia news agency confirmed a bomb caused the blast, which came at a time of growing jitters over security in Istanbul and the risk of a militant attack in Turkey's largest city.

The blast, which was heard in several areas of the city, hit an overpass close to the metro station in the Bayrampasa district of Istanbul.