Nightclub gunman kills 39 in Istanbul new year attack

A gunman has killed at least 39 people and injured dozens of others in an attack on a nightclub in the Turkish city of Instanbul.

It is thought at least 15 of the dead are foreigners who were among the revellers seeing in the new year when the attacker opened fire at the Reina club.

A government spokesman said nearly 70 people were being treated in hospital.

Suleyman Soylu said: “This was a massacre, a truly inhuman savagery.”

A massive security operation is under way to find the gunman who escaped from the building.

One policeman who was in the area near the entrance to the club was shot dead before the attacker went inside and opened fire.

In recent months Turkey has the been the target of a number of terror incidents. On 10 December Kurdish militants claimed responsibility for two bombs which killed 44 people also in Istanbul.