Turkey manhunt underway after rifle attack kills at least six in Tarsus

A rifle-armed gunman killed at least six people and wounded eight others across several locations in Tarsus, in Turkey’s Mersin province, before escaping into a police manhunt that spread across the city and its outskirts. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences for the dead but gave no motive for the attack.

Police said the assailant remained at large after opening fire in multiple neighborhoods in and around Tarsus, about 40 kilometers northeast of Mersin. Turkish media identified the suspect as Metin O, a 37-year-old man who allegedly began the assault by shooting and killing his wife in the street, then drove to a restaurant and fired from his car. There, he allegedly killed the owner and an employee before moving on to other parts of the city.

He was also suspected of killing a teenager, a 50-year-old man and another person elsewhere in Tarsus, according to Turkish reports. The sequence of attacks suggested a fast-moving rampage that unfolded before security forces were able to box him in, despite a response that included helicopters and drones.

The scale of the search underscored how rapidly the violence spread. Turkish police backed by aerial surveillance scoured the area while residents in Tarsus and nearby parts of Mersin province faced hours of uncertainty over where the gunman might strike next. The attack added another grim chapter to a month of heightened anxiety over gun violence and school safety in southern Turkey.

That concern had already deepened after two school shootings in April. One attack in Kahramanmaras province killed 10 people, while another nearby shooting injured 16 more. Together, the incidents have sharpened scrutiny of how firearms circulate in the country and how quickly security services can respond when attacks begin in populated neighborhoods.

A Turkish NGO cited by AFP said citizens hold tens of millions of firearms, most of them without permits, a figure that points to a wider enforcement challenge beyond a single manhunt. The Tarsus attack now tests not only the speed of the police response, but also Turkey’s ability to confront illegal weapons access and coordinate emergency protection across crowded urban areas before a gunman can move from one target to the next.