39 revellers shot dead in Istanbul nightclub, manhunt on for gunman

Ankara At least 39 persons including two Indians were killed and 69 injured as a sole gunman opened fire at people celebrating the New Year at a famous nightclub in Istanbul early on Sunday authorities said A manhunt has been launched for the gunmanAccording to security work and information the attacker is a single person Wearing a coat and pants he entered inside There are reports that he tried to get out with a different outfit said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu according to the Hurriyet DailyHe said security forces were engaged in trying to apprehend the attackerSoylu also said that 20 of the victims have been identified so far out of which 15 have been identified as foreign citizens while five of them were reported to be TurkishFamily and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya said that Saudi Arabian Moroccan Lebanese and Libyan nationals were among those injured in the attack on the highend Reina nightclub at the busy Besiktas areaTwo Indians were among the victims Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj saidI have a bad news from Turkey We have lost two Indian nationals in the Istanbul attack Indian Ambassador is on way to Istanbul she said in a tweetThe victims are Mr Abis Rizvi son of former Rajya Sabha MP and MsKhushi Shah from Gujarat she said on another tweetThe Minister spoke with the bereaved families including Abis father and former MP Akhtar Hassan Rizvi to express her condolences and oversaw the visa arrangements for their travel to IstanbulAn Israeli woman was among the dead the Israeli Foreign Ministry said while Belgiums Foreign Ministry said that it feared one of the deceased may be from BelgiumTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack and said that the motive for the attack is not clear He blamed terror groups trying to create chaosThey are trying to demoralise our people and destabilise our country However we as the nation will never give passage to these dirty games further uniting together and preserving our calmness Erdogan said in a statementAt least 69 people were being treated in hospital officials said of which four in a serious conditionEyewitnesses described panic and confusion as the attack unfoldedWe were having fun All of a sudden people started to run My husband said dont be afraid and he jumped on me People ran over me My husband was hit in three places one clubgoer told the newspaperAccording to one witness who survived by hiding himself he did not know how many attackers were there but he saw one gunman at leastI got shot in the leg he said while being taken into an ambulance These crazy people came in shooting everythingAfter the gunfire everyone started to run toward the terrace We ran as well There was someone next to me who was shot and fell on the floor We ran away and hid under the sofas said another eyewitnessTurkish media said some people jumped into the sea to escape as the nightclub is close to the Bosporus Strait prompting a rescue operation by the Coast Guard There were reportedly as many as 700 people in the nightclub at the time of the attackThe news received a strong international response as world leaders including those of Poland Iran and Greece condemned the attackUS President Barack Obama offered to help Turkey with the investigation and expressed condolences for the innocent lives lost said the White House in a statementRussian President Vladimir Putin also condemned the cynical murder of civilians Our shared duty is to decisively rebuff terrorist aggression he saidDespite no group yet claiming responsibility Turkish authorities characterised the attack as the work of terroristsUS officials also called it a terrorist attack making it the first of 2017