A Kurdish rebel who hijacked a Turkish ferry with 24 people aboard was killed early Saturday and all his hostages brought to safety after an ordeal of more than 12 hours, Turkish authorities said, Capital News reports.
According Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu, the hijacker, about 30 years old, was “a member of the terrorist organisation”, referring to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The ferry, named the Kartepe, was hijacked around 16.00 GMT Friday in the sea of Marmara, where PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is jailed on an island.
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim earlier spoke of four or five hijackers, but Mutlu said there was only one.
All the passengers and crew were safe, the governor added, as television footage showed them being evacuated with boats.
Security forces under the command of Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin boarded the ferry off the coast of Silivri, west of Istanbul around 03.35 GMT on Saturday.
Yildirim said 18 passengers, five of them women, four crew and two interns were aboard the vessel, which was making its normal route in the northern Marmara sea when it was seized.
