Swedish Consulate in Turkey targeted in gun attack; employee injured, assailant arrested

A Turkish employee of the Swedish Consulate in Izmir in western Turkey was recovering in a hospital on Wednesday after being injured in a gun attack at the office in the port city.

The lone gunman, a Turkish citizen from the eastern province of Agri, was arrested shortly after the attack on Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement from the Izmir governor’s office. The statement described the assailant as “mentally impaired.”

The consular officer was seriously injured in the shooting, state broadcaster TRT reported. A police investigation is ongoing.

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The suspect had come to the consulate for a visa application, the news agency DHA said.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc condemned the attack in a social media post.

The attack came as Sweden and Denmark face angry demonstrations in Muslim countries sparked by a string of public Quran burnings by a handful of anti-Islam activists in the Nordic countries. Protesters attacked the Swedish Embassy in Iraq last month.

Turkish officials have denounced the desecration of Islam’s holy book and called on Sweden and Denmark to do more to prevent such demonstrations.