ANKARA, August 1. /TASS/. An unidentified man attacked Sweden’s consulate in the Western Turkish city of Izmir, seriously wounding an employee.

As the Mynet news portal reports, the attacker was a Syrian national. The armed attack occurred after the man had problems obtaining a visa.

A female Turkish national who worked at the consulate has been wounded.

Over recent months, relations between Turkey and Sweden, which is awaiting the Turkish Parliament’s approval of its NATO application, have been exacerbated by a series of Quran-burning rallies in Stockholm. Turkish authorities have reacted very negatively to these acts of desecrating the Muslim holy book.

On July 30, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in a phone conversation with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom said that Turkey expects concrete steps to be taken by Sweden to prevent acts directed at desecrating the Quran.