(Bloomberg) -- Turkey said facilities owned by state-run defense firm TAI in Ankara were targeted in a deadly terrorist attack that claimed an unspecified number of lives.
“A terror attack was carried out at TUSAS facilities,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a post on X on Wednesday, referring to an alternative name for the company. An unspecified number of people were killed and wounded in the incident, he said.
Private broadcaster NTV aired footage that included sounds of blasts and gunshots. Security forces, firefighters and paramedics have been dispatched, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.
A female suicide bomber ran to the facility’s entrance and detonated herself, according to a person familiar with the matter. Two men then entered with automatic weapons and took an unspecified number of staff hostage, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of matter. Other staff have been taken to shelters, they said.
Turkey’s media watchdog imposed a broadcast ban on the incident.
The 43-million square feet facility in Kahramankazan in the outskirts of the Turkish capital serves as a center for manufacturing of planes, helicopters, drones and satellites, according to TAI’s website.
Turkey’s benchmark stock index declined as much as 2% after the incident, led by Turkish Airlines, retailer BIM and conglomerate Koc Holding.
Turkey has suffered terror attacks by separatist Kurdish militants, their offshoots and Islamic State in the past. Six people were killed and dozens wounded in a terror attack in central Istanbul in November 2022, which the government said was carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK.
The group, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last year in Ankara.
(Updates with details of the incident starting in first paragraph.)
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