Brief university hostage crisis resolved in northern city

GÜMÜŞHANE

Security forces in the northern province of Gümüşhane brought under control an armed hostage situation at a local university on Nov. 26, after a staff member took a female colleague hostage at gunpoint, triggering panic on campus.

The incident unfolded when a male civil servant employed at Gümüşhane University seized his female co-worker inside one of the academic buildings.

Students and staff across the campus were swiftly evacuated, while special operations police were dispatched to the scene.

Snipers were positioned on nearby rooftops and all entrances and exits to both the campus and the faculty building were placed under strict control.

After several tense hours, police negotiators managed to persuade the armed employee to surrender without further incident. The motive behind the incident is not yet known.

“The necessary administrative and legal procedures have been initiated without delay to prevent such distressing events from recurring,” the university said in its official statement.

A similar incident occurred earlier this month in Istanbul. On Nov. 10, a man wielding what later turned out to be a toy gun stormed the Istanbul headquarters of beIN Sports, one of Türkiye’s leading sports broadcasters, causing panic before police convinced him to surrender.