Death toll in Gaziantep attack rises to 56
GAZİANTEP
DHA photo
The death toll from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack on a wedding in the Şahinbey district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep has risen to 56, nearly two weeks after the suicide attack was carried out.The 56th victim of the attack was a six-year-old boy named Azat Aydınalp, Anadolu Agency reported on Aug. 30.
Aydınalp was taken to hospital after being wounded in the attack but later succumbed to his injuries, according to a statement released from the Gaziantep Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Aydınalp’s funeral was held in the province after an autopsy was performed.
The boy’s father, Servet Aydınalp, who was present at the funeral, suffered a leg wound in the attack while his mother, Zehra Aydınalp, fell ill at the site.
It was previously revealed that the majority of the people who died in the attack were children.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Aug. 21 said the suicide bomber was also a child.
“There are strong indications that the attack was carried out by ISIL. A suicide bomber aged between 12 and 14 blew himself up. We know that ISIL has been trying to gain ground in Gaziantep for a while now,” he told journalists in a press briefing in Istanbul on Aug. 21.