The hostage taker, a former employee of the Procter & Gamble factory where the events took place, released the seven hostages unharmed and was arrested.
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An armed man pretending to act held hostage, Thursday February 1, seven employees of a factory of the American group Procter & Gamble in Gebze, in northwest Turkey. After nine hours of hostage-taking, they were finally released unharmed. According to the governor of Kocaeli province, Seddar Yavuz, the hostage taker, a former employee, was arrested without violence during a brief law enforcement operation.
“Our security forces carried out their operation when he went to the toilet, without hurting the hostages”, he explained to journalists on site, specifying that the attacker did not claim to belong to any political or militant group. He called for an end to Israeli military operations in Gaza and the opening of the Rafah crossing point, between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the governor said.
Families gathered near the site confirmed to AFP that the seven hostages, including a 26-year-old young woman, were safe. “We are very happy after these long hours of waiting. Thank God they are all safe and sound”, Fatma Dursun, aunt of one of the hostages, told AFP. The man, who held “two weapons” And “a device” possibly explosive, according to the governor, had burst onto the site around 2:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. in France).
