At least 35 killed in New Year gun attack at Istanbul nightclub

UPDATE

The death toll has now been confirmed as 39, with 69 people injured, 4 of them critically.

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At least one gunman shot his way into an Istanbul nightclub packed with hundreds of New Year’s revellers on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding more than 40 in what the provincial governor described as a terrorist attack.

One assailant shot a police officer and a civilian as he entered the Reina nightclub before opening fire at random inside, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said at the scene. Some reports suggested there were multiple attackers. The governor told reporters:

A terrorist with a long-range weapon … brutally and savagely carried out this attack by firing bullets on innocent people who were there solely to celebrate the New Year and have fun

The club, one of Istanbul’s most iconic, popular with locals and foreigners alike, overlooks the Bosphorus Strait separating Europe and Asia in the city’s cosmopolitan Ortakoy district.

Around 500 to 600 people were thought to have been inside when the gunman opened fire at around 1:15 a.m. (2230 GMT), broadcaster CNN Turk said. Some jumped into the waters of the Bosphorus to save themselves and were rescued by police.

The attack again shook 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 Daesh and others claimed by Kurdish militants. US President Barack Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, expressed condolences and directed his team to offer help to the Turkish authorities, the White House said.

Governor Sahin said there was only one attacker but other reports, including on social media, suggested there may have been at least two, dressed in Santa Claus costumes which they later ditched.

The Hurriyet newspaper cited witnesses as saying there were multiple attackers and that they shouted in Arabic.

“We were having fun. All of a sudden people started to run. My husband said don’t be afraid, and he jumped on me. People ran over me. My husband was hit in three places,” one club-goer, Sinem Uyanik, told the newspaper.

“I managed to push through and get out, it was terrible,” she said, describing seeing people soaked in blood and adding that there appeared to have been at least two gunmen.

Erdogan: Turkey to fight against terrorism ’till end’

“Police moved in quickly”

Dozens of ambulances and police vehicles were dispatched to the club in Ortakoy, a neighbourhood on the city’s European side nestled under one of three bridges crossing the Bosphorus and home to nightclubs, restaurants and art galleries.

Sefa Boydas, a Turkish football player, wrote on Twitter:

I didn’t see who was shooting but heard the gun shots and people fled. Police moved in quickly…My girlfriend was wearing high heels. I lifted her and carried her out on my back

Hurriyet quoted Reina’s owner, Mehmet Kocarslan, as saying security measures had been taken over the past 10 days after US intelligence reports suggested a possible attack.

Turkey, a NATO member and part of the US-led coalition against Daesh, faces multiple security threats including spillover from the war in neighbouring Syria. It launched a military incursion into Syria in August against the group and is also fighting a Kurdish militant insurgency in its own southeast.

The New Year’s Eve attack came five months after Turkey was shaken by a failed military coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, many of them in Istanbul, as rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power.

Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city, has seen several attacks this year, the latest on December 10, when two bombs claimed by Kurdish militants exploded outside a soccer stadium, killing 44 people and wounding more than 150.

In June, around 45 people were killed and hundreds wounded as three suspected Islamic State militants carried out a gun and bomb attack on Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport.

Read: US denies having intelligence on Istanbul club attack

Carnations and candles are placed at site to pay tribute to victims of Istanbul night club terror attack in Istanbul, Turkey on January 01, 2017 [Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman / Anadolu Agency]

Carnations and candles are placed at site to pay tribute to victims of Istanbul night club terror attack in Istanbul, Turkey on January 01, 2017 [Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman / Anadolu Agency]

Carnations and candles are placed at site to pay tribute to victims of Istanbul night club terror attack in Istanbul, Turkey on January 01, 2017 [Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman / Anadolu Agency]

A woman leaves a bouquet of carnation at site to pay tribute to victims of Istanbul night club terror attack in Istanbul, Turkey on January 01, 2017 [Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman / Anadolu Agency]

Carnations and candles are placed at site to pay tribute to victims of Istanbul night club terror attack in Istanbul, Turkey on January 01, 2017 [Arif Hüdaverdi Yaman / Anadolu Agency]

Relatives of Istanbul nightclub terror attack victim Ayhan Arik attend his funeral ceremony on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [Berk Özkan / Anadolu Agency]

Relatives of Istanbul nightclub terror attack victim Ayhan Arik attend his funeral ceremony on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [Berk Özkan / Anadolu Agency]

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim (R) visits the Istanbul nightclub terror attack victims on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [Ali Balıkçı / Anadolu Agency]

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks to media after visiting Istanbul nightclub terror attack victims on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [Metin Pala / Anadolu Agency]

Relatives of the victims wait in front of local forensic medicine institution where the bodies of the armed terror attack victims has been brought, on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [İslam Yakut / Anadolu Agency]

Turkish Minister of Interior, Suleyman Soylu (3rd L) speaks to media as Turkish Minister of Health, Recep Akdag (R) stands next to him in front of the Sisli Etfal Hospital where some of the wounded victims hospitalized after an armed terror attack staged at a nightclub, on January 01, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey [Yasin Aras / Anadolu Agency]