ANKARA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A would-be assailant was shot and wounded near the Israeli embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman and Turkish police said.
“The staff is safe. The attacker was wounded before he reached the embassy,” the spokesman said in a text message. “The assailant was shot and wounded by a local security man.”
Turkish police at the scene told Reuters the assailant shouted “Allahu Akbar” outside before he was shot in the leg. Police were examining his bag but had so far not exploded it, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said. The area outside the embassy had been cordoned off.
Broadcaster CNN Turk said the assailant had been shot in the leg outside the embassy after attempting a stabbing attack. It said the attacker was not mentally stable.
Turkish private broadcaster NTV said the incident happened as two people attempted to enter the embassy.
It was not immediately clear if there was a second would-be assailant, but Turkish media reports had initially suggested that there had been two attackers.
Turkish media earlier reported that the man had been killed, but then later said he was “neutralized and injured”.
Turkey faces multiple security threats, including from Islamic State militants, who have been blamed for bombings in Istanbul and elsewhere, and from Kurdish militants, following the resumption of a three-decade insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast last year.