Nightclub shooter in Turkey arrested

Turkish police captured the suspected extremist who slaughtered 39 people on New Year’s night at an Istanbul nightclub, detaining him in a raid on a residential area of the city in the early hours of Tuesday after a long manhunt.

The alleged assailant was found along with his four-year-old son in an apartment in the Esenyurt district of Istanbul after a massive police operation, state-run TRT television reported.

The attacker had been on the run for over two weeks, after slipping into the night following the attack on the glamorous Reina nightclub on the Bosphorus.

Reports had previously suggested he never left the Turkish metropolis, despite a tightening of borders in a bid to stop him escaping, triggering fears that a dangerous killer was on the loose in the city.

The state run Anadolu news agency identified the detained man as Abdulgadir Masharipov, while the Dogan news agency said he used the code name of Ebu Mohammad Horasani within Daesh. These are the same names given in the January 8 reports.