Clashes erupt between rival students at Ankara University, one injured with gun

ANKARA

AA Photo

Rival student groups clashed at Ankara University on Feb. 26, leaving a security officer and a student injured.

Police built a barricade between the groups to end the clashes in which students attacked each other with stones and sticks, as the buildings in the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography were evacuated.

Some 43 of the 46 people who were detained by police for being involved in the clashes were released after being questioned by a prosecutor. Three students have been taken to the Ankara Police
Department as a part of a probe into the shooting of the university’s security personnel. The security officer was shot in the foot while trying to separate the groups.

After checking the footage from the university’s security cameras, police identified that one of the three students fired the gun, while the other two are still under custody for their testimonies.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident, as it remains unclear how the gun was brought onto the campus.

One student has also been taken to the hospital after being hit in the head with a hard object.

The clashes reportedly erupted between nationalist and left-wing students after tension arose following the death of Fırat Çakıroğlu, the representative of the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) youth branch at Ege University. Çakıroğlu was stabbed in a fight at the Ege University campus on Feb. 20.

Classes at the same faculty were previously suspended on Feb. 23 to prevent clashes.