Türkiye: Attack on church in Istanbul – police arrest suspects

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Türkiye
Attack on church in Istanbul – police arrest suspects

A Turkish police officer works near the Santa Maria Church. Two masked men attacked the church and killed one person. photo

© Emrah Gurel/AP/dpa

A man is killed in an attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul. Now the police have caught two suspects.

After an attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul with one dead, Turkish police have caught two fugitive suspects. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced this on the X platform, formerly Twitter. The suspected attackers came from Tajikistan and Russia, he said at a news conference. Possible connections to the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) are being investigated. IS claimed the attack through its mouthpiece Nashir.

Two masked men entered the Santa Maria Catholic Church in the Sariyer district during the morning service and killed a man. According to media reports, the victim was 52 years old. The perpetrators initially managed to escape. Interior Minister Yerlikaya said raids were carried out at 30 addresses and a total of 47 people were arrested in the course of the investigation.

More than 99 percent of the people in Turkey are Muslim. According to the state news agency Anadolu, more than 180,000 Christians live in the country.

dpa

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