Libyan attacks Topkapi Palace

TURKISH security forces killed a Libyan gunman who shot and wounded two people with a pump-action rifle in the courtyard of Istanbul’s historic Topkapi Palace yesterday.

The assailant opened fire just as the first visitors would normally be arriving at the palace, home of Ottoman sultans for centuries. He was killed after a one-hour siege.

“The attacker was not a Turkish citizen, he was foreign. A Libyan national born in 1975. He entered Turkey on 27 November,” said interior minister Idris Naim Sahin.

Witnesses said the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar” [God is greatest] just seconds before he started to fire.

The motive for the attack is not known.