REUTERS-A gunman opened fire
on New Year revelers at a packed nightclub on the shores of Istanbul's
Bosphorus waterway on Sunday killing at least 39 people, including many
foreigners, then fled the scene.
Some people jumped
into the Bosphorus waters to save themselves after the attacker opened fire at
random in the Reina nightclub just over an hour into the new year. Officials
spoke of a single attacker but some reports, including on social media, suggested
there may have been more.
The attack shook
NATO member Turkey as it tries to recover from a failed July coup and a series
of deadly bombings in cities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, some
blamed on Islamic State and others claimed by Kurdish militants.
Security services
had been on alert across Europe for new year celebrations following an attack
on a Christmas market in Berlin that killed 12 people. Only days ago, an online
message from a pro-Islamic State group called for attacks by "lone wolves"
on "celebrations, gatherings and clubs".
The Hurriyet
newspaper cited witnesses as saying the attackers shouted in Arabic as they
opened fire at Reina.
"We were having
fun. All of a sudden people started to run. My husband said don't be afraid,
and he jumped on me. People ran over me. My husband was hit in three
places," one club-goer, Sinem Uyanik, told the newspaper.
"I managed to
push through and get out, it was terrible," she said, describing seeing
people soaked in blood.
The incident bore echoes
of an attack by militant Islamists on Paris's Bataclan music hall in November
2015 that, along with assaults on bars and restaurants, killed 130 people.
Interior Minister
Suleyman Soylu said 15 or 16 of those killed were foreigners but only 21 of the
bodies had so far been identified. He said 69 people were in hospital, four of
them in critical condition.
"A manhunt for
the terrorist is underway. Police have launched operations. We hope the
attacker will be captured soon," he told reporters.
Turkey is part of
the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State and launched an incursion into
Syria in August to drive the radical Sunni militants from its borders. It also
helped broker a fragile ceasefire in Syria with Russia.
"As a nation,
we will fight to the end against not just the armed attacks of terror groups,
but also against their economic, political and social attacks," President
Tayyip Erdogan said in a written statement.
"They are
trying to create chaos, demoralize our people, and destabilize our country ...
We will retain our cool-headedness as a nation, standing more closely together,
and we will never give ground to such dirty games," he said.
There has been no
claim of responsibility, but Erdogan linked the attacks to developments in the
region where Turkey faces conflict across its frontier in Syria and Iraq. Some
three million Syrian refugees currently live on Turkish soil.
The Reina club is
one of Istanbul's best known nightspots, popular with locals and foreigners
alike. It overlooks the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia in the
city's cosmopolitan Ortakoy district.
As many as 600
people were thought to have been inside when the gunman shot dead a policeman and
civilian at the door, forced his way in and then opened fire.
Istanbul Governor
Vasip Sahin said the attacker used a "long-range weapon" to
"brutally and savagely" fire on people, apparently referring to some
form of assault rifle.
U.S. President Barack
Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, expressed condolences and directed his team to
offer help to the Turkish authorities, the White House said.
"POLICE MOVED
IN QUICKLY"
Dozens of ambulances
and police vehicles were dispatched to the club in Ortakoy, a neighborhood on
the city's European side nestled under one of three bridges crossing the
Bosphorus and home to nightclubs, restaurants and art galleries.
"I didn't see
who was shooting but heard the gun shots and people fled. Police moved in
quickly," Sefa Boydas, a Turkish soccer player, wrote on Twitter.
"My girlfriend
was wearing high heels. I lifted her and carried her out on my back," he
said.
Hurriyet quoted
Reina's owner, Mehmet Kocarslan, as saying security measures had been taken
over the past 10 days after U.S. intelligence reports suggested a possible
attack.
Turkey faces
multiple security threats including spillover from the war in neighboring
Syria. As well as its cross-border campaign against Islamic State, it is
fighting Kurdish militants in its own southeast.
The New Year's Day
attack came five months after a failed military coup, in which more than 240
people were killed, many of them in Istanbul, as rogue soldiers commandeered
tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power.
More than 100,000
people, including soldiers and police officers, have been sacked or suspended
in a subsequent crackdown ordered by Erdogan, raising concern both about civic
rights and the effectiveness of Turkey's security apparatus.
On Dec. 28, the
Nashir Media Foundation, which backs Islamic State, urged sympathizers to carry
out attacks in Europe during the holiday period and to "replace their
fireworks with explosive belts and devices, and turn their singing and clapping
into weeping and wailing".
A month ago, a
spokesman for Islamic State called on supporters to carry out a wave of attacks
and urged them to target "the secular, apostate Turkish government".
Turkey has seen
repeated attacks in recent weeks. On Dec. 10, two bombs claimed by Kurdish
militants exploded outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul, killing 44 people,
most of them police officers, and wounding more than 150.
A car bomb killed at
least 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it ripped through a bus carrying off-duty
military personnel in the central city of Kayseri a week later, an attack
Erdogan also blamed on Kurdish militants.
The Russian
ambassador to Turkey was shot dead as he gave a speech in Ankara on Dec. 19 by
an off-duty police officer who shouted "Don't forget Aleppo" and
"Allahu Akbar".
In June, around 45
people were killed and hundreds wounded as three suspected Islamic State
militants carried out a gun and bomb attack on Istanbul's main Ataturk airport.
REUTERS
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