Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks following the Presidential Cabinet Meeting held at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkiye, on May 18, 2026. Utku Ucrak/Anadolu via Getty Images

A man armed with a rifle carried out a string of attacks in a city in southern Turkey on Monday, killing at least six people and wounding eight others, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Police backed by helicopters and drones were searching for the assailant who remained at large after opening fire in several locations in Tarsus, in Mersin province.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the 37-year-old suspect in the latest attack, identified as Metin O, allegedly shot and killed his wife in a street before firing from his car at a restaurant, killing its owner and an employee.

He is suspected of later killing a teenager, a 50-year-old man and one other person at another Tarsus neighborhood, the agency reported.

The assailant allegedly fled in a car, according to Demirören News Agency (DHA).

Erdogan, speaking following a Cabinet meeting, offered his condolences for the deaths but did not provide information on the gunman or his motives.

"He came in without a word... We thought he was getting his telephone out, but he brought out a pistol," IHA quoted a restaurant employee, Mehmet Han Topal, who was wounded in the leg.

"I got down. He fired at me," he said.

Turkey has been shaken by a series of recent shootings that have raised concerns over gun violence and school safety. Last month, an attack at a school in southern Kahramanmaras province left 10 people dead, while another school shooting just a day earlier injured 16 in a nearby province.

According to a Turkish NGO, there are tens of millions of firearms held by citizens, most of them without permits.

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