Policeman confused with thief beaten up

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

A group of citizens attacked a pair of undercover policemen in Istanbul’s Şişli district, after they mistook him for a thief breaking into their apartment.

The residents of an apartment in Şişli notified the police of a theft on the night of Jan 1. Upon the notice, two undercover policemen arrived at the address and took action to catch the thief by going upstairs. However, the residents thought they were the thieves and attacked the policemen with knives and sticks.

Police in uniform run to the rescue
One of the policemen was saved by uniformed police units who subsequently arrived on the scene.

The beaten policeman said he would file a complaint against the attackers, saying: “What thief has a camera on his back?” The apartment’s residents, on the other hand, defended themselves by saying they had no way of understanding that they were police officers.

Meanwhile, the real thief has not been found and it remains unknown whether they fled from the scene before or during the attack.