SAN FRANCISCO, January 01, (THEWILL) – At least 39 people, including 16 foreign nationals, were killed and 69 others wounded during New Year’s celebrations after a gunman opened fire at an Istanbul nightclub.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters that the attacker entered the Reina nightclub and began shooting at random, then changed clothes and left.
Citizens of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Libya and Lebanon are among the dead, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry says a young Arab-Israeli woman was killed in the attack.
The interior minister named several possible culprits, including Islamic State, Kurdish militants or far-left groups.
The manhunt for the attacker, who has not yet been identified, is still underway as police believe he carried out the attack alone.
Provincial Governor Vasip Sahin has described the incident as a terrorist attack.
“A terrorist with a long-range weapon brutally and savagely carried out this incident by firing bullets on innocent people who were there solely to celebrate the New Year and have fun,” Sahin told reporters.
Reports indicate that the attacker shot at a police officer and at civilians before entering the nightclub. Many inside were said to have jumped into the neighbouring Bosphorus waterway in an attempt to save themselves from the gunfire.
Security measures had been heightened in major Turkish cities, with police barring traffic leading up to key squares in Istanbul and the capital Ankara. In Istanbul, 17,000 police officers were put on duty.
This latest attack comes just two weeks after Russian ambassador, Andrei Karlov, was shot dead by an off-duty Turkish policeman, Mevlut Mert Altintas, and three weeks after a bomb attack killed 44 people at a football stadium in Istanbul. A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for the latter.
Story by Oputah David
