Istanbul, Nov 15 (IANS): The perpetrator of a dead bomb blast in the centre of Istanbul which killed six people and injured 81 othershas been arrested, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced.

"The person who carried out the attack on Sunday and left the bomb was detained by the teams of our Istanbul Police Department," the state-run Anadolu agency quoted Soylu as saying.

The blast occurred on Sunday at around 4.20 p.m. in the city's the busy Istiklal Avenue, reports Xinhua news agency.

Police have also detained another 21 people with alleged links to the attack, said Soylu.

"We assess that the order for the deadly terror attack came from Ayn al-Arab in northern Syria, where the PKK/YPG had Syrian headquarters," the Minister added.

He was referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its offspring in Syria, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), both listed as terror organisations by Turkey.

Soylu said his country would retaliate against those responsible for this heinous terror attack.