Gunshots fired at Turkish football club’s team bus

Driver injured in attack on Fenerbahce’s bus which sports minister condemned as “cowardly and barbaric”.

Attack on Turkish soccer team Fenerbahce''s team bus in Trabzon
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of the Istanbul club, has asked about the investigation into the attack [Getty Images]

Gunshots have been fired at a bus carrying Turkey’s Fenerbahce football team back from their 5-1 victory over Black Sea side Rizespor, injuring the driver but leaving players unhurt, the club said.

Several shots were aimed at the bus as the Turkish Super Lig league leaders passed through the northeastern town of Trabzon on Saturday night following their away game in nearby Rize, said the club’s vice president Mahmut Uslu.

The driver managed to bring the bus to a stop despite being wounded in the face, and was immediately taken to hospital in a police car, said Uslu, who was on the bus at the time. He accused the attackers of trying to “crash the bus and kill the players”.

“It’s unbelievable,” he told Turkish television.

None of the players were injured in the attack, which happened as they returned to Istanbul. Pictures of the bus showed a damaged windshield on the driver’s side.

President Erdogan inquires

Trabzon governor Abdil Celil Oz said he received a phone call from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of the Istanbul club, asking him about the investigation into the attack, the AFP news agency reported.

The players and their entourage were later met by hundreds of supporters in the club’s blue-and-yellow strip at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport.

Sports Minister Cagatay Kilic described the attack as “cowardly and barbaric” but said the championship would go ahead as planned, as Turkish media responded with shock to the unprecedented attack on a club in the football-mad country.

It comes at a moment of high tension in Turkey after a week of political violence ahead of June elections.

On Tuesday, two Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) fighters took a prosecutor hostage at an Istanbul courthouse and held him for hours before all three were killed in a shoot-out with the police.

A day later police in Istanbul killed an armed woman linked to the DHKP-C after she tried to storm the police headquarters in the capital.

Source: AFP