Turkey nightclub attack: Gunman identified, says minister Published duration 4 January 2017

image caption Images of the suspect have already been circulated in Turkish media

Turkey's foreign minister says officials know the identity of a gunman who carried out the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year's Eve but he has stopped short of naming him.

Mevlut Cavusoglu gave no further details about the inquiry into the murder of 39 people at the Reina club.

Jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the nightclub attack in which dozens more were hurt.

A number of suspects have been arrested in the western city of Izmir.

The police operation on Wednesday was said to have targeted families who had recently travelled to Izmir from Konya, a central city where the main suspect was said to have stayed for several weeks before the attack.

Turkish authorities released images of the main suspect on Tuesday but later discounted reports that he was a 28-year-old Kyrgyz national who had flown home from Istanbul.

Turkey is under growing pressure while the gunman remains on the loose. Checkpoints were set up in Istanbul on Wednesday as officers checked cars and taxis. Police arrested 12 people in raids in the city on Tuesday.

media caption The BBC's Mark Lowen is one of the first journalists allowed into the nightclub site

Turkish media have run images of a suspect, saying the pictures were handed out by the police. But the police have given no official details.

In a sign of mounting anger in Istanbul, a video posted on social media showed a man being physically attacked on the Asian side of the city on Wednesday as people shouted: "It's him" and "it's the Reina attacker." The man was punched, knocked to the ground and taken to a local police station before being released.

EU affairs minister Omer Celik said the attacker had clearly had training in the Middle East, and had managed to evade police by not using technology and steering clear of "all modern intelligence techniques".

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his first public comments about the attack, vowed that the jihadist would not succeed in dividing Turks. "In Turkey, no-one's way of life is under any threat. Those who claim this have to prove it. It is my duty to protect everyone's rights,'' he said.

The Reina nightclub, which sits on the banks of the Bosphorus, is one of Istanbul's most fashionable venues - popular with foreigners and often frequented by singers and sports stars.

The gunman is said to have arrived by taxi before rushing through the entrance with a long-barrelled gun he had taken from the boot of the car.

He fired randomly at people in an assault lasting seven minutes, and then fled during the chaos.

Turkey extended its state of emergency for another three months on Tuesday. It was implemented following a failed coup in July which was blamed on a movement loyal to US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

image copyright Reuters image caption Flowers and pictures of the victims are placed near the entrance of the Istanbul nightclub that was attacked by a gunman on New Year's Eve

However, Turkey's big cities have also been targeted by IS and by Kurdish militants.

IS was blamed for an attack last June on Istanbul's Ataturk airport, in which more than 40 people were killed. Police are investigating whether the nightclub suspect belongs to the same cell.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday that the nightclub attack was a "message" against Turkey's operations in Syria but that they would not be affected.