Two masked attackers shot and killed one individual throughout a church service on Sunday in Istanbul, Turkish officers stated. The motive was not instantly clear.
The assault passed off at about 11:40 a.m. on the Santa Maria church, an Italian Catholic church within the Sariyer district of Istanbul, the inside minister, Ali Yerlikaya, wrote on the social media platform X. Mr. Yerlikaya gave solely the sufferer’s initials, C.T., and stated that an investigation into the capturing was underway and that the authorities have been searching for the assailants.
“Such provocations won’t ever be allowed in our nation,” Akif Cagatay Kilic, a prime adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, wrote on X. “The perpetrators will probably be caught as quickly as attainable and held accountable earlier than justice.”
The federal government-appointed governor of Istanbul, Davut Gul, stated in televised remarks on the scene that the sufferer was a 52-year-old Turkish citizen.
“Two masked assailants went in, shot at somebody and that individual was killed,” Mr. Gul stated.
Pope Francis expressed sympathy for the Santa Maria church group. And Italy’s international minister, Antonio Tajani, acknowledged his “sorrow and agency condemnation” of the killing in a put up on X.
“We are going to by no means permit those that attempt to destroy our unity and peace by attacking the spiritual locations of our metropolis,” Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, wrote on X.
The authorities didn’t present additional particulars in regards to the assault or about whether or not the assailants have been suspected of hyperlinks to any terrorist group.
The Islamic State has been linked to a number of assaults in Turkey lately, together with a bloodbath at a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017, when a lone gunman killed dozens of individuals throughout New Yr’s celebrations.
