Turkish authorities are close to fully identifying the gunman responsible for an attack on an Istanbul nightclub which killed 39 people on New Year's Day and have detained eight other people, the government's spokesman said on Monday.
“Information about the fingerprints and basic appearance of the terrorist have been found. In the process after this, work to identify him swiftly will be carried out,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told a news conference.
Additionally a selfie video of the alleged shooter was reportedly released by the Turkish media.
The video broadcast on Turkish television shows the alleged gunman filming himself with a cellphone at Istanbul's Taksim square. It wasn't immediately clear if it was filmed before or after the New Year's massacre at the Reina nightclub.
No details have been released as to why the authorities might think the man on the video is a suspect in New Year's attack, or how the footage was obtained.
Turkish state broadcaster Trt identified the gunmnan as 28-year-old Kyrgyz citizen, Iakhe Mashrapov.
The Turkish police have detained the wife of the nightclub attacker who is still on the run two days after he killed 39 persons, media reported on Tuesday.
The gunman came to Turkey from Kyrgyzstan on November 20 with his wife and two children. His wife was detained in the central Anatolian city of Konya, Xinhua news agency reported.
The wife told the police that she learned of the attack from television reports and had no information about her husband being an Islamic State sympathiser.
Twelve suspects have been detained here over their suspected links to the attack.
(With inputs from IANS and AP)
Video Editor: Sunil Goswami
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