Syrian compound attacked in Ankara after teens killed

ANKARA (Reuters) – A crowd of Turks attacked shops and homes of Syrians in the Turkish capital Ankara overnight after a street battle in which a Turkish teenager was fatally stabbed, a witness and media reports said.

During the unrest in Ankara’s Altindag district, the windows of Syrians’ shops and homes were smashed and a vehicle was overturned and set on fire. Police fired once into the air to stop the violence, the witness said.

The unrest broke out after a brawl between Turkish and Syrian youths on Tuesday. CNN Turk broadcaster said one Turkish teenager had died and one was injured.

Two foreigners have been charged over the teenager’s death and taken into custody, state news agency Anadolu reported.

Ankara police said they arrested 76 people for involvement in the unrest or for making misleading posts on social media to provoke Turkish citizens after the brawl in Altindag on Tuesday.

They said 38 of those detained had criminal records, including for looting, violence and burglary.

Kerem Kinik, head of the Turkish Red Crescent, shared a video on Twitter showing projectiles being thrown at houses.

“Which of our traditions involves stoning people’s houses at night? Many refugees contacted us and said they were worried about the lives of their children,” he said.

He shared a photo of a young child whose face was covered in blood after being injured by a rock thrown through a window, who he said was taken to hospital for treatment.

“Let’s cool this fire. It doesn’t benefit anyone.”

The Ankara governor’s office said on Twitter overnight that the “protests and incidents” that took place on Wednesday evening had ended.

Turkey is home to around 3.7 million Syrian refugees and the recent unrest comes amid concerns about a growing number of Afghan refugees arriving in eastern Turkey from Iran as part of the conflict in Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Giles Elgood and Kevin Liffey)