ISTANBUL, January 28. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly condemned the incident in a Catholic church in Istanbul, where two masked attackers shot dead a man.

"I offer my condolences to society. All necessary measures are being taken to detain the offenders. We hope they will be found and arrested within 24 hours," the A-haber television channel quoted him as saying.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office has launched a probe.

According to the Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, the incident occurred at about 11:40 a.m. local time (8:40 a.m. GMT) at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in the Sariyer district, where two masked men opened gunfire and killed a Turkish national born in 1972. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.