By Shabtai Gold
dpa
ISTANBUL — Turkish police Monday captured the man believed to be responsible for the New Year’s Eve attack in an Istanbul nightclub, which left at least 39 people dead, according to Turkish state media.
The main suspect in the attack was taken alive, along with several other individuals after a police operation in Esenyurt, on the European side of the Turkish metropolis Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Police suspect the man of spraying bullets inside the waterfront Reina nightclub, killing mostly foreigners and wounding dozens more in an attack later claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.
Pro-government daily Sabah tweeted what it said was the first photo of the captured suspect, showing a bruised and bloody face resembling the person seen in a selfie video that emerged in the days after the attack, which showed the chief suspect walking around central Istanbul.
Turkish authorities had previously said they had identified the man. Local media reported he was of Central Asian decent and had arrived in Turkey from Syria.
Authorities have arrested about three dozen people around the country since the attack on the upmarket club which took place in the hours after revelers rang in the new year.
The arrest comes days after the manhunt led police to a house in which authorities found $150,000 during a raid, Hurriyet and other Turkish media reported.
Police on Friday also arrested two foreign nationals from the Uighur ethnic group accused of being members of a terrorist organization and assisting in 39 counts of murder, according to Anadolu.
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