Gunman Kills Six and Wounds Eight in Southern Turkey

A man armed with a rifle carried out a string of attacks in Tarsus, a city in southern Turkey, on Monday, killing at least six people and wounding eight others, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Police backed by helicopters and drones were searching for the assailant after he opened fire in several locations.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the 37-year-old suspect, identified as Metin O, allegedly shot and killed his wife in a street before firing from his car at a restaurant, killing its owner and an employee. He is suspected of later killing a teenager, a 50-year-old man and one other person at another Tarsus neighborhood, the agency reported.

The assailant allegedly fled in a car, according to Demirören News Agency.

Eyewitness Account "He came in without a word...

We thought he was getting his telephone out, but he brought out a pistol," IHA quoted a restaurant employee, Mehmet Han Topal, who was wounded in the leg. "I got down. He fired at me," he said. Erdogan, speaking following a Cabinet meeting, offered his condolences for the deaths but did not provide information on the gunman or his motives.

Turkey has been shaken by a series of recent shootings. Last month, an attack at a school in southern Kahramanmaras province left 10 people dead, while another school shooting just a day earlier injured 16 in a nearby province. According to a Turkish NGO, there are tens of millions of firearms held by citizens, most of them without permits.