Man takes hostages in Istanbul in protest of Gaza war

An assailant on Thursday took a number of people hostage at a plant owned by US cosmetics giant Procter & Gamble near Istanbul in protest at the war in Gaza, a police spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear how many people were being held at the plant, which lies on the eastern outskirts of Turkey's largest city, the spokesman told AFP.

A union representing workers at the consumer goods plant said the assailant was holding seven people hostage, adding that the rest of the plant's workers had been released.

The private DHA news agency published a photo widely circulated online of the alleged assailant holding a gun and what appeared to be a suicide vest strapped to his chest.

The man was standing next to a drawing of the Palestinian flag and the words "for Gaza" painted on the wall in red.

Images from the scene showed police setting up a cordon around the sprawling plant, which primarily manufactures cosmetics.

Special operation forces and medical personnel were dispatched to the scene, Turkish media reported.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday at least 27,019 people have been killed in nearly four months of war between Palestinian militants and Israel.

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