ANKARA, December 19. /TASS/. The Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated on Monday in the country’s capital of Ankara by former special task police force officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, born in 1994, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told journalists.

According to earlier reports, an unidentified assailant opened rapid gunfire on Monday in the Turkish capital of Ankara during the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition dedicated to bilateral relations between Russia and Turkey and called ‘Russia through Turks’ eyes.’

Russian Ambassador to Turkey Karlov, who had been invited to the opening ceremony of the exhibition, was shot during the attack and later died in a hospital of the sustained wounds, according to Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.