Eight dead in mass shooting in rural west Turkiye: officials

Turkish gendarmerie vehicle parked next to a car following a forensic inspection where people were killed by a gunman in Afyonkarahisar on November 5, 2026. Photo: AFP via news agency DHA. Eight people were shot dead in three villages in west-central Turkiye on Thursday (November 5, 2026), local officials said, as police pressed a major manhunt to find the gunman.

“Unfortunately, eight of our citizens have lost their lives, and one has been seriously injured in armed attacks in our province,” the Afyonkarahisar governor’s office said. The shooting struck in a rural area near Afyonkarahisar, a town halfway between the capital Ankara and the coastal city of Izmir.

Two women with gunshot wounds were found on a road in Yukaritandir village, and despite being rushed to the hospital, both died, Anadolu state news agency said. Three more bodies were found in Kiyir village, which lies a half-hour drive to the northeast, and another three in Ayazini village, a further half-hour drive east, it said.

Another person found in critical condition was fighting for their life in hospital, it said, without saying where they had been injured. Grainy CCTV footage published by Turkish media showed a man in a black jacket, white trousers and glasses clutching a rifle as he stood by a faded red minivan.

Police later found the red vehicle stuck in the mud on the outskirts of the university town of Eskisehir, which lies about 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the north, the suspect having fled on foot, the private NTV channel said.

DHA news agency said investigators were looking to see if there was any connection with an earlier incident in the centre of Afyonkarahisar in which a woman in a car was shot and seriously injured by a gunman.