[Breaking news update, published at 2:50 a.m. ET]
Turkish authorities have identified the gunman who killed 39 people in Sunday’s nightclub terror attack in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu said Wednesday. He did not name the suspect or provide the suspect’s nationality.
[Original story, published at 2:42 a.m ET]
Turkish authorities have detained five alleged ISIS members in connection with the New Year’s Day nightclub terror attack that left 39 people dead and dozens wounded, state-run news agency Anadolu reported Wednesday.
That would bring the number held in connection with the investigation to at least 21, and Turkish authorities still are believed to be on the hunt for the gunman who carried out the attack at the Reina nightclub in Instanbul.
Details of where the latest detentions took place were not immediately available.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted to Twitter, but the claim cannot be independently verified by CNN. It boasted about the first major terrorist attack of 2017.
Suspect seen in selfie video
On Monday, police released a video that the suspected gunman apparently took of himself in a market near the nightclub. Neither his name nor his nationality has been released.
Laith Alkhouri, a director at Flashpoint, an American business risk intelligence company tracking terrorist and cyber threats, told CNN the “selfie video” featuring the man in Taksim square was first posted on a pro-ISIS Telegram account before being broadcast by Turkish media.
Alkhouri said that suggests the attacker was part of a network supportive of or linked to ISIS, and that he had shared the selfie footage with them before or after the attack.
Victims from 14 countries
At least 11 victims in the attack on the upscale nightclub were from Turkey, according to Anadolu, while at least 27 victims hailed from 13 other countries, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Canada.
Dozens of people were hospitalized. A handful of the injured were in critical condition.
Witnesses described how the New Year’s Eve celebration turned into a bloodbath.
“We were having fun. At first we thought it was a fight, then there was a lot of gunfire,” witness Yunus Turk told CNN.
“After the gunfire everyone started to run toward the terrace. We ran as well. There was someone next to me who was shot and fell on the floor. We ran away and hid under the sofas.”