Police have rescued seven hostages held at gunpoint for hours at a factory owned by U.S. company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey, local officials said early Friday. This is the second terror incident in Turkey within a week. The first one targeted a Catholic church, killing a mass-goer, but the second one was less horrifying and frankly a bit bizarre.
A gunman had sparked the standoff at the P&G facility in Gebze, Kocaeli province, in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Governor Seddar Yavuz was quoted as saying by state-run Anadolu news agency.
Police initiated the rescue after 10 hours of negotiation failed. “Our esteemed police members and our heroic security forces made the necessary intervention as soon as we were sure that no harm would come to the hostages,” Yavuz said.
A person named İbrahim Y. raided a factory in Gebze district of Kocaeli and took the employees hostage. The hostage crisis, which lasted for hours, ended with the police neutralizing the attacker. An interesting incident took place inside the factory during the hostage crisis. Since it was the birthday of one of the hostages, his colleagues, who had made preparations in advance, held a birthday celebration with the attacker’s permission. The hostages broadcast those moments live on their social media accounts, commented Turkish news site NTV.com.tr
Police continues to raid suspected DAESH cells after last week’s deadly raid on a Catholic church. According to Turkish press, the two incidents are not related, and the hostage taker Ibrahim Y doesn’t have any connections to terror organizations.
Such incidents and attacks may proliferate, as the ongoing slaughter in Gaza infuriates Muslims all around the world and President Erdogan begins to use religion as one of the primary motives of the campaign for end-March municipal elections.
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