Erdogan calls Putin over shooting of Russian envoy

ANKARA (AA) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called and briefed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin following the fatal shooting of Moscow’s ambassador to Turkey, a presidential spokesman confirmed on Monday.

Ibrahim Kalin told Anadolu Agency the phone call took place in the wake of Andrey Karlov's death. The Russian ambassador was shot multiple times at an art exhibition in Turkey's capital Ankara on Monday evening.

Karlov had been delivering a speech at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara's central Cankaya district when an assailant opened fire on the diplomat before shooting into the air, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent who witnessed the incident.

The envoy was seriously wounded and immediately rushed to Guven Hospital in Cankaya.

Police special forces neutralized the attacker in an operation that lasted around 15 minutes.

Andrey Gennadyevich Karlov was born in 1954 in Moscow and had been serving as Russian ambassador to Turkey since July 2013.

A graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations he was an experienced diplomat, serving in many positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former Soviet Union and Russia.