Attackers kill five, injure 22 at Turkish state aviation site

Five people were killed and 22 others wounded in an attack at the Turkish Aerospace Industries’ headquarters on Wednesday, the government said, and witnesses said they heard gunfire and a loud explosion at the site near Ankara.

Turkey’s interior minister pointed the finger at the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the government, over the attack.

“The identification process and the search for fingerprints are continuing and we will say which terrorist organization was behind the attack… The way in which this action was carried out is very probably linked to the PKK,” said Ali Yerlikaya, who raised the death toll to five with 22 injured.

Yerlikaya had earlier said two attackers were killed in what he called a terrorist attack, adding three of the injured are in critical condition. TV broadcasters earlier showed footage of armed assailants entering the TUSAS building.

“Two terrorists were neutralized in the terror attack on the TUSAS Ankara Kahramankazan site. Sadly, we have 3 martyrs and 14 wounded in the attack,” Yerlikaya said, referring to the Aerospace Industries.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, alongside Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a BRICS conference in the Russian city of Kazan, also called it a terrorist attack.

Some media reports claimed a suicide attack had occurred and that there were hostages inside the building, though officials have not confirmed this.

Witnesses told Reuters that employees inside the building were taken by authorities to shelters and no one was permitted to leave for a few hours. They said the blasts they heard may have taken place at different exits as employees were leaving work for the day.

Broadcasters showed images of a damaged gate and footage of an exchange of gunfire in a parking lot, as well as attackers carrying assault rifles and backpacks as they entered the building. Ambulances and helicopters later arrived.

TUSAS is Turkey’s largest aerospace manufacturer, currently producing a training craft, combat and civilian helicopters, as well as developing the country’s first indigenous fighter jet, KAAN. Owned by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation and government, it employs more than 10,000 people.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte condemned the attack and said the military alliance would stand with its ally Turkey. The European Union delegation in Turkey also condemned the attack.