At least five people have been injured in a multiple stabbing in northwestern Turkey, carried out by a teenager armed with a knife and dressed as a video game character who live-streamed the attack, inspired by Nazi symbolism and the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand.
The attack took place at an outdoor cafe in the Turkish city of Eskishehir, 230 kilometers (140 miles) west of Ankara. The 18-year-old attacker, identified as Arda K., broadcast the attack on social media from a camera attached to his vest, according to HaberTurk television.
The victims were relaxing after prayers at a mosque in the city, while others were walking in a nearby park. The five injured were taken to hospital, two of them in serious condition, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The attacker was wearing a mask and a bulletproof vest, imitating the outfits used in the video game PUBG, in which players fight in a battle in which the last one standing wins, local media reported. The images taken by the attacker show that he was wearing protective glasses over the mask, thus completely concealing his face. The attacker also carried an axe, but did not appear to have used it.
Dressed in combat gear, the young man also stood at tram stops in the city, waiting for passengers to attack them.
A police officer on his way to his post noticed the chaos and managed to arrest the suspect after a police chase.
The document also expressed his admiration for Brenton Tarrant, the author of the neo-Nazi massacre at the mosque in Christchurch (New Zealand). He also mentioned that, if he was captured, he should “smile defiantly for the cameras.”
The manifesto also details that the attacker’s original target was actually the local headquarters of the Communist Party of Turkey, but that he ultimately had to change his plans at the last moment: “I should have carried out this attack much earlier,” he wrote. “I will attack everyone I find in my path.”
In the letter he also recalled what he had to do to prepare the attack: “isolate myself” and not talk to anyone, draw inspiration from the manifestos of other “purifiers” and start by killing members of his family with “2 or 3 easy assassinations.”
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said an investigation was underway, while HaberTurk and other media said the attacker was believed to have been influenced by a video game.
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