Three people have been killed and five others wounded in an attack on the headquarters of Turkey’s aerospace and defence company TUSAS near the capital Ankara, a local official has confirmed.
Selim Cirpanoglu, the mayor of Kahramankazan province, provided the details during an interview with the Turkish TV channel Tele1. Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, had earlier announced the attack had resulted in multiple casualties.
“A terrorist attack was carried out against the Turkish Aerospace Industries Ankara Kahramankazan facilities,” Yerlikaya wrote in a social media post, without providing further details.
Footage from the scene broadcast by local media initially showed huge clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara. Media have reported a loud explosion at the site and showed footage of an exchange of gunfire there.
Security camera images from the attack, aired on television, showed a man in plainclothes carrying a backpack and holding an assault rifle.
At least one woman, also carrying an assault rifle, was among the assailants, according to the images.
“Having looked at the images and spoken with sources, we’re talking about three attackers,” said Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Ankara. “There are claims that attackers who infiltrated took some of the workers as hostage, but we don’t have further details” she added.
“Apparently, the attackers had shown information about the building, about the entrances,” Koseoglu continued, explaining that the attackers approached the employees’ entrance. “Many of the experts now suggest that this was a strategically planned terrorist attack.”
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Turkey has previously experienced attacks by ISIL (ISIS) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Emergency services were dispatched to the site, state-owned Anadolu Agency reported.
“Deeply concerning reports of dead and wounded in Ankara,” said NATO head Mark Rutte in a post on X.
“NATO stands with our ally Turkey. We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and are monitoring developments closely,” he added.
TUSAS is one of Turkey’s most important defence and aviation companies. It produces KAAN, the country’s first national combat aircraft, among other projects.
The blast occurred as a major trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries was taking place in Istanbul which was visited this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat.
Turkey’s defence sector, which is widely known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the nation’s export revenues with revenues expected to top 10.2 billion dollars in 2023.