Oct. 10 started out as a normal day. People of all kinds, mostly young, assembled slowly in front of the train station in Ankara to participate in the "Labor, Peace and Democracy" rally organized by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Also attending were members of the Confederation of Revolutionary Labor Unions, other leftist labor unions and professional nongovernmental organizations.
At 10:04 a.m., two suicide bombers, separated by about 50 yards and three seconds, detonated their explosive-packed vests that were equipped with roughly 20-30 pounds of explosives, reinforced with RDX and steel balls to increase fragmentation. The human toll was high: According to the latest official data from the government, at least 97 were killed and 160 sent to hospitals, with 65 in serious condition.