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ISTANBUL: The lone hijacker of a Turkish ferry carrying 24 people was “captured dead” early Saturday and all his hostages brought to safety, the governor of Istanbul said.
“Soon after the beginning of an operation, the hijacker was captured dead,” Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told NTV private television.
The governor said the hijacker was “a member of the terrorist organisation”, referring to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The hijacker, about 30 years old, had been carrying explosives, said Mutlu.
The ferry, named the Kartepe, had been hijacked around 1600 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.
