4 killed, many injured in Turkey’s defence firm attack

Four people were killed and 14 others wounded Wednesday in an attack on the headquarters of a top Turkish defence firm near Ankara, Turkish officials said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, immediately condemned what he called a “heinous terrorist attack” at state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI).

“The terrorist attack against TAI, one of the leading lights of the Turkish defence industry, is a vile attack targeting the survival of our country,” he said on X.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that two attackers, “a woman and a man”, had been “neutralised”.

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Work was underway to determine their identities, he added, without saying whether there were any other attackers still at large.

Footage immediately after the attack, which struck around 3:30 pm (1230 GMT), showed huge clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara.

There was no immediate claim for the attack but the justice minister said an investigation had been opened.

An unconfirmed report by private TV channel NTV said a “group of terrorists” had burst into the building, one of whom “blew himself up” while other media outlets spoke of exchanges of fire that lasted for over an hour.

There was no immediate comment from the Turkish authorities who quickly moved to impose a blackout of live images from the scene.

One of Turkey’s top defence firms and a major arms producer, TAI employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square metres, its website says.