A gun battle this morning outside a building housing the Israeli consulate in Istanbul has left one attacker killed and two “neutralised”, an official has said.
Two police officers are said to have been injured as they exchanged fire with the gunmen over 10 minutes.
"Three individuals who engaged in an armed clash with our police officers on duty in front of the Yapı Kredi Plaza Blocks in Istanbul have been neutralised,” Turkish interior minister Mustafa Ciftci said.
"In the clash, two of our heroic police officers sustained minor injuries,"
Ciftci said that one suspect has "ties to an organisation that exploits religion" while two of the attackers are brothers.
Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel in October 2023, the area around the consulate – located on the seventh floor of the building in the financial district of the Turkish capital – has been heavily guarded, according to Reuters news agency.
But it reported an informed source saying that no Israeli diplomats were currently stationed in Turkey at the moment.
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