Turkish authorities will deport Gabriele del Grande, an Italian journalist working for the ANSA news agency, who was detained during a security check in the southern province of Hatay on Tuesday, according to Turkish media reports.

Relying on Italian diplomatic sources in Turkey, some Turkish media outlets reported that the Italian journalist will be deported from Turkey.

The reason for the detention of the 35-year-old journalist is still not clear.

Italian authorities have reportedly taken action to secure the release of the journalist who travelled to Turkey several days ago to conduct interviews for a book he is writing about the war in Syria and the birth of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The detention and arrest of foreign journalists as well as their deportation are becoming more common in Turkey, which has the highest number of journalists in the world in its prisons.