Turkish television showed live footage of police shooting at the man in a street in the leafy government district of the capital Ankara. Police shot dead a suspected suicide bomber at Turkey's Justice Ministry on Friday after he apparently tried to set off an explosive device. Turkish television showed live footage of police shooting at the man, said to be between 25 and 30 years old, in a street in the leafy government district of the capital Ankara. A Reuters correspondent saw the man lying dead in a pool of blood. Witnesses said the man had tried to enter the ministry, near Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office, at around 9:15 a.m. (0615 GMT) but triggered the security sensors. Police grabbed him after he apparently set off a detonator but failed to explode his main device. The man escaped into the street where police shot him first in the leg and then in the head, the witnesses said. Police gave no immediate confirmation of the details but they gave the bomber's name as Eyup Beyaz and said he was known to be a member of Turkey's largest far-left faction, the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).
Earlier, Turkish television had given the man's name as Muharrem Akyurt from documents found on his body. Two bomb disposal experts in protective clothing examined the man's corpse after police cordoned off the area. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, clearly anxious to avert possible criticism from the European Union that Turkish police are trigger-happy, said they had to shoot the man because he had a bomb on him. "The security forces first fired warning shots, but because the aggressor continued to run towards a crowded bus station, they had to shoot him," Cicek said in televised remarks. "Turkey will continue to improve its human rights and democracy," he added. |