A gunman is confirmed to be an off-duty Turkish police officer, according to The Daily Mail.
Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, was shot several times from behind by a gunman shouting:
”Allahu Akbar (God is Great). We die in Aleppo, you die here!”
He also screamed: ”Only death will take me out of here,” The Daily Mail reported.
The shooter, who was wearing a suit and tie, has been identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, a member of Ankara`s police riot squad. He reportedly fired into the air before taking aim at the ambassador.
He then turned weapon on others in the gallery – injuring three – before he was shot dead in a 15-minute stand-off with police.
There has been some suggestion that Altintas was linked to Turkey`s failed coup in July. At least five people – all relatives of the gunman – have been arrested. According to Turkish sources, the police have also been searching for the two alleged accomplices.
A joint investigation by Turkish and Russian law enforcers was greenlighted after a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a statement late Monday, Putin called the assassination of the Russian diplomat an attempt to disrupt Russian-Turkish ties and a peace process in Syria.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Russian ambassador to Ankara was shot in an attack at an art gallery in the Turkish capital on Monday and the Russian RIA news agency said he had died of wounds sustained.
