ZWhite masked men attacked a Catholic church in the metropolis of Istanbul and killed one person. The two attacked a participant in a church service with a weapon on Sunday, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the X platform. The person died. The background to the crime is therefore being investigated. The perpetrators are on the run. They are being searched for. The broadcaster CNN Türk reported that the police had set up roadblocks at important traffic points and were carrying out stricter controls.
In images from the DHA news agency, which are said to have come from a surveillance camera in front of the church, two people dressed in black and wearing black masks could be seen slowly approaching.
The Catholic-Italian Church of Santa Maria is located in the Sariyer district of Istanbul. Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the community in Istanbul during Sunday prayers in St. Peter's Square in Rome.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the church priest and expressed his condolences. Interior Minister Yerlikaya visited the scene in the afternoon and said they would not allow anyone to destroy cohesion in Turkey. He initially did not confirm media reports about injuries. The authorities also did not provide any more precise information about the type of weapon used. Turkey is more than 99 percent Muslim. According to the state news agency Anadolu, more than 180,000 Christians still live in the country.
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