7 wounded as man opens fire at passenger buses at Ankara terminal

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Seven people were wounded after a man opened fire at three passenger buses with a pump rifle at the main bus terminal of Ankara (AŞTİ) on the afternoon of June 25. 

A man, identified only by the initials A.B., was detained by the police late June 25 approximately an hour after opening fire at three inter-city passenger buses, shortly after their departure from AŞTİ.

According to reports, the man initially fired shots at a bus at the Ovacık entrance of the Ankara beltway. Soon afterwards, he attacked two other passenger buses near the Karapürçek switchback.

Police teams were dispatched toward his location, but the assailant was only apprehended after an hour-long chase that ended when police successfully shot out his tires.

A child who was inside the car alongside A.B. was also brought to the police station.

Ankara Gov. Mehmet Kılıçlar made a statement about the shooting, announcing that seven passengers were wounded in the attack perpetrated by a suspect who has a total 24 criminal records.

“Three pump rifles were found in the trunk of the suspect’s car,” Kılıçlar told the press. 

The driver of one of the three buses that were attacked, Zülküf Murat Üzülmez, commented on the attack, saying three or four of the injured persons were from his bus.

“I had 37 passengers. There was chaos inside the bus. No one saw [the suspect] – neither the passengers nor I,” Üzülmez said, adding the bus was en route to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. 

Üzülmez said his passengers were not wounded with bullets but by broken glass.

Meanwhile, reports indicate the suspect had separated from his wife and had opened fire at the office of his father-in-law a total of six times over the past two weeks. 

His criminal record also included damage to property, intentional injury, sexual assault, defamation, violating the sanctity of the home and deprivation of liberty.