Deputy PM visits Russian embassy after envoy's murder

ANKARA

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes has visited the Russian Embassy in Ankara after the fatal shooting of Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov on Monday evening.

A prime ministry source told Anadolu Agency that Turkes extended the condolences of the Turkish government to the embassy staff.

Karlov had been delivering a speech at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara's central Cankaya district when an assailant opened fire on the diplomat before shooting into the air, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent who witnessed the incident.

The envoy was seriously wounded and immediately rushed to Guven Hospital in Cankaya.

Police special forces neutralized the attacker in an operation that lasted around 15 minutes.

Andrey Gennadyevich Karlov was born in 1954 in Moscow and had been serving as Russian ambassador to Turkey since July 2013.

A graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations he was an experienced diplomat, serving in many positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former Soviet Union and Russia.