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The number of people detained in connection with the terrorist attack on a police post outside Yapi Kredi Plaza in Istanbul's Besiktas district has risen to 16.
Security camera footage also revealed that the attackers scouted the location twice in the days before the assault, Istanbul police and the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said the investigation into the terrorist attack on the police post at Comert Street in Levent Mahallesi, Besiktas, is ongoing.
Istanbul police detained an additional suspect in Kocaeli province as part of the investigation, bringing the total number of detainees, including the two wounded attackers Onur Celik and Enes Celik, who remain under treatment in the hospital, to 16.
Fourteen of the suspects are undergoing processing at Istanbul Police Headquarters, while the two hospitalized terrorists are expected to be transferred to police custody following their treatment.
Security camera footage obtained as part of the investigation showed the attackers conducted reconnaissance at the site on two separate occasions before carrying out the attack.
On the evening of April 1, the attackers arrived at the scene by car, entered a car park and conducted reconnaissance in the area, all captured on security cameras.
The following morning, they returned with the same vehicle and conducted a second reconnaissance, also recorded on camera.
Investigators also determined that the suspects sold the vehicle they had used during reconnaissance and then rented a separate car to carry out the terrorist attack.
Three terrorists were neutralized after a gunfight with police outside Yapi Kredi Plaza on Buyukdere Street in Istanbul’s Besiktas district, while two officers were lightly injured, Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said on Tuesday.
Ciftci said the suspects, who engaged in an armed clash with police officers on duty in the area, have been identified.
He added that they arrived in Istanbul from Izmit in a rental car, noting that "one had links to a group that exploits religion," while another, one of two brothers among the attackers, had a prior drug-related record.
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