Turkey shooter drops passport

13:28, 03 January 2017

Twitter users publish photo of passport of Kyrgyz citizen allegedly 'belonging to Istanbul night club shooter'

AKIPRESS.COM - Turkish Twitter users posted and retweeted a photo of alleged passport of Kyrgyz citizen identified as "Iakhe Mashrapov" who "could be the suspected Istanbul night club shooter." The shooter is still at large since January 1.

Kyrgyz state registration authorities were not immediately available to confirm/reject the validity of the passport seen in the photo.

The image shows the passport of the citizen of the Kyrgyz Republic belonging to "Iakhe Mashrapov", male, born on August 2, 1988. In the photo, the document issue date is October 21, 2016, the issuer is the State Registration Service of the Kyrgyz Republic.

This passport could be real, however the person owning the document might have nothing to do with the terrorist attack in Istanbul as official confirmation is awaited.

The Reina nightclub on Istanbul's European side was attacked during New Year's eve celebrations by a man who, according to witnesses, was talking in Arabic. The attacker is said to have opened fire from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. At least 39 people were killed, including 16 foreigners, and 69 injured as a result of the attack.

Initial Turkish police reports suggested that the suspect may be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan, while officials are also investigating the possibility that the attacker may be from Xinjiang in eastern China. Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry says it is looking into media reports that the gunman in the New Year's Eve night club attack in Istanbul could be from the Central Asian country.

The Daesh terror group claimed the attack on Monday. Police arrested eight suspects on Monday in connection with the nightclub attack.

The manhunt is underway.

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