Turkey nightclub shooting kills 39
TERROR TARGETS JOY Two Indians among those killed as gunman opens fire on New Year revellers in Istanbul
ISTANBUL /NEW DELHI: A gunman opened fire on New Year revellers 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.
Two Indians were among those killed, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said.
Some people jumped into the Bosphorus to save themselves after the attacker began shooting at random in the Reina nightclub just over an hour into the new year. Witnesses described diving under tables as the assailant walked around spraying bullets from an automatic rifle.
The Indian victims were identified as Abis Hasn Rizvi, the son of former Rajya Sabha MP and noted Mumbai builder Akhtar Hasan Rizvi, and Khushi Shah from Gujarat.
“Abis Rizvi was CEO of Rizvi Builders and had produced a number of films, including the 2014 movie Roar: The Tigers of the Sundarbans,” PTI quoted Swaraj as saying.
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.
“At first we thought some men were fighting with each other,” said a Lebanese woman who gave her name as Hadeel and who was in the club with her husband and a friend.
“Then we heard the sound of the gunfire and ducked under the tables.
“We heard the guy screaming Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), all three of us heard that ... We heard his footsteps crushing the broken glass,” she told Reuters. “We got out through the kitchen, there was blood everywhere and bodies.”
Officials spoke of a single attacker, a “lone wolf” in the parlance of Islamic State, but some reports citing witnesses including on social media suggested there may have been several.
A massive security operation unfolded to track down the fugitive assailant or assailants and any conspirators.
“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.