A loud explosion in front of the gates and then two armed men entered, shooting wildly, into the headquarters of the Aerospace Industry (Tusas) in Ankara province, in Kahramankazan, about fifty kilometers from the capital.
It was just after 3.30 pm in Turkey when all hell broke loose with an attack that Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya immediately defined as "terrorist" and which caused the death of at least four people, in addition to 14 injured .
Eleven Italian technicians who were in the area - most of them Leonardo employees and engaged in industrial collaboration activities within the framework of aeronautical programs started years ago with Turkey - remained unharmed.
The two terrorists, a man and a woman, who were captured on security cameras at the time of the attack, were later killed in a raid by special forces who entered the building. One of the attackers is said to have taken 11 people hostage before being shot.
In the evening, the Turkish government pointed the finger at the Kurds of the PKK.
Ankara immediately blocked Instagram, YouTube and X, while a court banned TV and radio from reporting on the attack. According to reports, the terrorists arrived in a taxi at the large Aerospace Industry building, where thousands of employees work. Once there, they killed the driver, got out and detonated a bomb, although rumors of a suicide attack had initially spread on social media. After the explosion, the two men headed towards the building, shooting, and the man managed to get inside.
The attack took place while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was at the BRICS summit in Russia and was meeting with President Vladimir Putin. The Turkish leader called the attack "cowardly" and said that "no terrorist organization targeting our security will be able to achieve its goals," promising that "the fight against all types of terrorist threats, and their supporters, will continue with determination and resolve."
(Online Union)
