Police 'shoot dead' Istanbul gunman

Police shot dead a man armed with a shotgun who opened fire in a tourist area of Istanbul early Wednesday, wounding two people, Turkish television reported. The man shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is great) before opening fire in an apparently indiscriminate attack, NTV television quoted witnesses as saying. The incident happened in Sultanahmet, the heart of historic old Istanbul, which is visited by thousands of tourists every day. The man entered the Topkapi Palace on the banks of the Bosphorous River and began shooting in all directions, NTV television quoted Istanbul police chief Huseyin Capkin as saying. "With his weapon he began to fire everywhere," he said. Police officers rushed to the scene and exchanged fire with the man before shooting him dead. "The operation neutralised the aggressor," Capkin said. The man was a Libyan national who had entered Turkey on Sunday, Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin was quoted as saying by the Anatolia press agency.