ANKARA — A gun wielding man stormed a plant of a multinational brand in Turkey’s northwest on Thursday, taking a number of people hostage inside, according to local media reports.
Seven people were taken hostage inside the compound of the Procter & Gamble plant in northwestern province of Kocaeli, according to local media reports. Employees inside the vast compound are being evacuated from the scene, local authorities confirmed to Al-Monitor, without providing any details on the specifics of the incident.
Turkish police special forces units have also been dispatched to the area, they said, adding that Kocaeli Governor Seddar Yavuz is also at the location.
Footage aired by Turkey’s private Demiroren News Agency showed police cordoning off the roads leading to the plant. Ambulances were also dispatched to the scene, purportedly as a precaution.
Police forces are trying to contact the assailant to end the standoff, according to Kocaeli-based local media outlets.
The motivation of the assailant remained unclear as of this writing, but his action was allegedly in protest against Israel, some local media news outlets claimed.
In November, the US Embassy in Ankara warned its citizens against potential attacks on certain US-branded businesses amid ongoing mass protest against Israel over the ongoing war.
Local branches of several multinational chains, including McDonalds and Starbucks, have seen protests, boycotts, and vandalization by demonstrators throughout late October and early November as the humanitarian toll in Gaza was increasing.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
