Teen arrested after two Turkish police officers shot dead / Photo: HANDOUT - DHA (Demiroren News Agency)/AFP
Teen arrested after two Turkish police officers shot dead
Two officers were killed and two others wounded in a shooting attack on a police station near the Turkish city of Izmir on Monday, with a 16-year-old suspect arrested, officials said.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the "heinous" attack on the police station in Balcova, just west of the resort city, left two officers dead and a third "seriously injured".
"The suspect in the incident, 16-year-old E.B., has been arrested and an investigation has been opened," he wrote on X.
Izmir's Governor Suleyman Elban said the suspect lived on the same road as the police station and was injured during his arrest.
"The murder suspect is a 16-year-old who lives on this street. He has no criminal record or previous arrests for any crime," Elban told the private NTV television and other media at the scene.
"We saw plenty of empty shotgun shells... and there were many cartridges" of unused ammunition, he added, saying the suspect had used "a shotgun his father bought 10 years ago".
The DHA news agency said the assailant had used "a long-barrelled gun" while NTV described the weapon as a "pump-action shotgun".
It was not immediately clear why the station was targeted, and the authorities later imposed a ban on the dissemination of images related to the attack.
Before the ban, footage posted by the Gercek Gundem news website showed mobile phone video of a person in a balaclava, a black top and pale trousers jogging along the pavement carrying a rifle and then entering a building.
- Covered with blood -
Another widely published clip showed the alleged attacker lying on the pavement being treated by paramedics.
He appeared to be conscious but the back of his trousers was covered with blood and multiple bullet cases were lying on the ground.
A third clip showed a group of civilians helping to manhandle the suspect into a police van.
Police immediately fanned out across the area, imposing tight security measures, media reports said.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Izmir's chief public prosecutor had opened an investigation involving an eight-strong team of prosecutors in a post on X, where many ministers denounced the attack and sent condolences to the families of the victims.
(O.Mofokeng--TPT)
