Breaking - At Least 35 Dead, 40 Injured in Armed Attack on an Istanbul Nightclub

January 1, 2017, 2:27 AM (IDT)

Turkish media reports that one or two Arabic-speaking gunmen wearing Santa Claus costumes, ran through the popular Reina nightclub in central Istanbul shooting “long-barreled guns.”

Among the dead is one police officer, Vasip Sahin the city’s governor stated, adding that it was a terror attack. 

“Unfortunately, at least 35 of our citizens lost their lives. One was a police officer,” Mr Sahin told reporters at the scene of the upmarket Reina nightclub, which sits on the banks of Bosphorus in the city’s European side.

The nightclub is frequented by high-end socialites, artists and football stars.

There were reportedly as many as 700 people in the nightclub at the time of the attack, some of whom are believed to have jumped into the river to escape.

Witnesses counted 50 to 60 ambulances at the scene.

Istanbul was already on high alert with some 17,000 police officers on duty in the city, following a string of terror attacks in recent months.

No official statement has been made over the attack yet although the neighborhood is patrolled by police.

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