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PM Yıldırım: Similar attacks could occur

Relatives of Ayhan Arık, one of the victims of the Reina night club attack mourn during his funeral ceremony on January 1, 2017 in İstanbul. Thirty-nine people, including many foreigners, were killed early on January 1, 2016 when a gunman went on a rampage at an exclusive nightclub in İstanbul where revellers were celebrating the New Year. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

As Turkey mourns 39 people killed in an armed attack on a popular nightclub in İstanbul early Sunday morning, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Sunday that similar attacks could occur.

“It should be known that the terror that occurred here today can occur in another country tomorrow. No country is safe from these terrorist incidents. It might happen in Turkey as well,” Yıldırım told the press after making a hospital visit to people injured during the nightclub attack in Beşiktaş on Sunday.

Underlining that terror has no religion, Yıldırım warned the international community that double standards in the fight against terrorism cannot help the struggle succeed and said that instead, it creates weakness.

“The only thing we can say is that terror has no religion. Terrorism is terrorism everywhere. Double standards in the fight against terrorism cannot help that struggle achieve success; rather it creates weakness,” he added.

Prime Minister Yıldırım also dismissed previous reports that the assailant was dressed in a Santa Claus costume.

Yıldırım noted that three or four of the more than 60 injured were in critical condition.

The identities of 35 victims have been confirmed, and 24 have been identified as foreign citizens — seven Saudi Arabian, two Indian, one Canadian, one Syrian, one Israeli, two Tunisian, four Iraqi, one Lebanese and one Belgian — while 11 of them were reported to be Turkish citizens. Work to identify the other four is ongoing.

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