Four people were killed and 14 others were injured in a “terror attack” on the headquarters of Turkish aerospace and defence company TUSAS, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was quoted by Reuters as saying on Wednesday.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya informed that two terrorists were neutralised” in the incident at the headquarters of state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries which he earlier described as a “terrorist attack.”
An explosion, followed by gunfire, was heard on the premises of the aviation company on Wednesday. The explosion may have been caused by a suicide bomber, the HaberTurk television reported.
In an initial post on X, the interior minister said that a huge explosion outside the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries near Ankara left a number of people “dead and injured”.
“A terrorist attack was carried out against the Turkish Aerospace Industries… Unfortunately, we have martyrs and injured people,” Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X, soon after local media reported a blast and shooting outside the site some 40 kilometres outside Ankara.
Employees at the company, located on the outskirts of Ankara, were taken to a safe area, local reports added. Security forces, ambulances and firefighters were dispatched to the site, NTV television reported.
TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles both civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defence industry and space systems.
Some ‘taken hostage’
Videos and footage from security cameras reportedly showed a man with a backpack and holding an assault rifle on the premises of the aerospace company. NTV reported that gunfire at the site was continuing and that some personnel at the complex may have been taken hostage.
At least one woman, also carrying an assault rifle, was among the assailants, according to the images.
Who’s responsible for the terror attack in Turkey?
It is not yet clear who may be behind the attack, news agency Associated Press reported. Kurdish militants, the Islamic State group and leftist extremists have carried out attacks in the country in the past.
