Russia's ambassador to Turkey killed in shooting

Russia's ambassador to Turkey has been gunned down while speaking at an art exhibition in the Turkish capital.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the killing in a live televised statement.

She said: "Today in Ankara, as a result of an attack, the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Turkey, Andrey Gennadyevich Karlov, received a wound from which he died.

"We regard this as a terrorist act. The murderers will be punished."

The 62-year-old ambassador had been attending an art exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Centre in the Cankaya area of Ankara, along with other dignitaries and media.

The gunman was Mevlut Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old who had been working for the riot police squad in Ankara for the past two-and-a-half years.

Turkish authorities have detained his mother, father, sister and roommate, also a riot police officer.

Altintas was off-duty when it is understood he entered the building using his police ID and opened fire on the ambassador as he made a speech.

A video showed him shouting: "Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!

"So long as our brothers are not in safety, you will not taste safety either. Only my dead body will leave here.

"Whoever is involved in this cruelty, one by one, you will pay for it."

The gunman also shot three other people, although none were seriously injured, according to Turkey's interior ministry.

Turkish media said he then climbed to the second floor of the building before a 15-minute shootout with police, during which he was killed.

A photographer from Associated Press who had been at the exhibition said the gunman had been wearing a suit and tie and had shouted "Allahu Akbar" before firing at least eight shots.

He had also spoken in Russian and smashed several of the photos in the exhibition.

Hasim Kilic, a correspondent for the daily Hurriyet, told AFP: "He said something about 'Aleppo' and revenge."

Mr Karlov had served as ambassador to Turkey since 2013, his latest posting in a 40-year diplomatic career.

Ms Zakharova said he had made "a lot of personal contributions to the development of ties with Turkey".

She said: "He has done a lot to overcome a crisis in bilateral relations.

"He was a man who put his heart and his soul into his job. It's a terrible loss for us and also the world."

The shooting comes after days of protests in Turkey over Russia's backing of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Ankara's mayor Melih Gokcek said the attack was an attempt to ruin Turkish relations with Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin called the killing a "provocation" aimed at sabotaging warming ties between Moscow and Ankara and efforts to resolve the conflict in Syria.

He said: "The crime that was committed is without doubt a provocation aimed at disrupting the normalisation of Russian-Turkish relations and disrupting the peace process in Syria that is being actively advanced by Russia, Turkey and Iran."