News - Middle East: Turkey says a huge explosion outside the headquarters of its Aerospace Industries (TAI) has left a number of people “dead and injured.”

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote in a message on X that it was a “terror attack.”

“Unfortunately, we have martyrs and injured people.”

In an updated posting on X, the minister said four people were killed and 14 injured.

Describing the attack as “heinous,” Yerlikaya said two of the attackers were killed.

Footage from the scene broadcast by local media initially showed huge clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town near the capital Ankara. 

Local media also reported that gunfire was heard at the complex before the explosion.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, NATO chief Mark Rutte said he had offered the Western military alliance's support to Ankara in a telephone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Rutte wrote on X that he “spoke with Erdogan about the terror attack in Ankara. My message was clear: NATO stands with Turkey.”

Putin offers condolences

The Turkish president is attending the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, where he met President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Putin offered his “condolences in connection with the terror attack.”

Press TV