Bahar Bakir, the diplomatic correspondent for the Haberturk Newspaper, was in the art gallery in Ankara when the shooting happened, and has described what he saw.

"A person who shouted 'Allah-u Akbar' [God is great, in Arabic] behind the ambassador said: 'You killed civilians in Syria, you will not get away with this'," he said.

"He took out his gun and pointed it at the ambassador first and then to everyone else in the room. We lay down in panic. I saw the attacker pointing the gun towards [the] ceiling and the ambassador lying on the ground unfortunately.

"The exhibit hall was on second storey and I went down running. I saw wounded people who fell on the ground with me."