Ankara — A team of Russian investigators arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to uncover how an off-duty policeman assassinated Moscow’s ambassador in an art gallery, as Turkey made its first arrests over the murder.
Veteran diplomat Andrei Karlov was shot four times in the back by Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas, 22, in a brazen attack as he opened an exhibition of Russian photography on Monday.
Adding to the jitters in a country already on high alert after a string of deadly attacks, an individual also fired outside the US embassy in Ankara overnight in a separate incident.
The gallery where the shooting occurred is opposite the US embassy.
The mission said in a statement that no-one was hurt and the individual was detained but the embassy and consulates in Istanbul and Adana were closed for normal operations.
Turkish police detained six people over the killing, widening a probe to relatives of the off-duty policeman who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo!” as he gunned the envoy down.
The gunman’s mother, father, sister and two other relatives were held in the western province of Aydin, while his flatmate in Ankara was also detained.
