Turkish police on Tuesday arrested a masked man who allegedly went on a stabbing rampage in the northwestern city of Eskisehir.
The authorities did not disclose the identity of the suspect or his reasons for attacking.
Turkish media did manage to broadcast a brief CCTV clip of the alleged attacker dashing through the tea garden of a mosque in Eskisehir with a long knife in his hand.
It turned out there was no reason to rely on fleeting glimpses through security cameras because the alleged stabber livestreamed his entire assault on the mosque:
Judging from his own video, the suspect allegedly outfitted himself with a skull mask, helmet, goggles, and bulletproof vest before barging into the mosque and stabbing at least five people. Most of his targets appear to have been chosen at random and stabbed from behind. Two of the alleged victims were reportedly left in critical condition. Some local media reports alleged that up to seven people were injured.
The suspect was detained soon afterward. A local news website described the alleged attacker as “dressed like a person in a game,” meaning a video game like Fortnite. According to this account, he was allegedly armed with an axe in addition to his knife but did not use the axe during his stabbing rampage.
Al Jazeera News on Tuesday quoted reports that said the alleged attacker was an 18-year-old who calls himself “Arda K” and who did appear to have been influenced by video games, at least stylistically. Some reports alleged his costume included a neo-Nazi symbol known as the “black sun.”
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