Some of the people who were injured in an armed attack on the Reina nightclub in İstanbul early Sunday morning retrieved their belongings from the club on Monday.
Thirty-nine people were killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day when a gunman went on a rampage at an exclusive nightclub in İstanbul where revelers were celebrating the coming of the new year.
The terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Monday claimed responsibility for the massacre as police continue to hunt for the attacker, who remains at large. With foreigners making up the majority of those killed in Sunday’s attack, families were due to reclaim the bodies of two dozen non-Turkish and mainly Arab victims.
The shooting spree at the waterside Reina nightclub was unleashed when 2017 in Turkey was just 75 minutes old, after a year of unprecedented bloodshed that saw hundreds of people die in strikes blamed on jihadists and Kurdish militants and a bloody failed coup.
People lay flowers in front of the Reina nightclub, on Jan. 2, 2017 in İstanbul, one day after a gunman killed 39 people, including many foreigners, in a rampage at an upmarket nightclub in Istanbul where revelers were celebrating the new year. YASIN AKGUL / AFP
Turkish anti-riot police officers stand guard in front of the Reina nightclub, on Jan. 2, 2017 in Istanbul, one day after a gunman killed 39 people, including many foreigners, in a rampage at an upmarket nightclub in Istanbul where revelers were celebrating the new year. OZAN KOSE / AFP
People carry the coffin of Yunus Görmek, 23, one of the victims of the Reina nightclub attack, during a funeral ceremony on Jan. 2, 2017 in İstanbul. BULENT KILIC / AFP