TURKISH POLICE fired tear gas yesterday to prevent mourners laying carnations at the site of the previous day’s bomb attack on a peace march, which killed 128 people.

Police held back mourners, including pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, insisting that detectives were still working at the site.

A group of about 70 mourners was eventually allowed to enter the cordoned-off area outside the capital’s main railway station before marching to a demonstration in the city centre.

Two bombs targeting the march in the capital Ankara left 128 dead and wounded hundreds more.

In video footage, young communist and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) youth are seen chanting and waving banners before a huge fireball erupts behind them.

Bodies lay strewn around, many draped in the flags of the HDP and other organisations.

The demonstration had been organised to call for an end to the Turkish security forces’ crackdown on the PKK and left-wing radicals.

Within hours of the attack, the PKK kept an earlier pledge to call a ceasefire, which the government had dismissed on Friday.

Mr Demirtas accused the government of failing to prevent the attack.

“The state, which gets information about the bird that flies and every flap of its wing, was not able to prevent a massacre in the heart of Ankara,” he said. “We are dealing here with a mafioso, murderous and mass murderous state mentality.”

The Kurdistan Communities Union accused the government of causing the massacre in order to win back lost votes in the November 1 elections.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu tried to blame the PKK, suggesting it had attacked its own supporters.

However, he also admitted that Islamic State (Isis) could have been responsible, claiming there were “strong signs” that the attacks were suicide bombings.

Yesterday, 14 suspected Isis members were arrested in the central city of Konya, although it was unclear whether they were linked to the Ankara bombings.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the bomb atrocity — although his Justice and Development Party government has been accused of aiding Isis in Syria’s civil war.

He said the attacks had targeted Turkey’s unity and called for three days of national mourning.