Gunmen take hostages at a Procter & Gamble factory in Turkey, an apparent protest of Gaza war
Turkish anti-riot police officers block the street where a plant owned by US giant Procter & Gamble is located at Gebze District in Kocaeli near Istanbul on February 1, 2024, after an assailant took an undisclosed number of people hostage.

Two gunmen took seven hostages at a factory owned by U.S. company Procter & Gamble in northwest Turkey on Thursday, according to media reports, apparently in protest of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Turkish media published an image of one of the purported suspects inside the factory, a man wearing what appeared to be a rudimentary explosives belt and holding a handgun.

Private news agency DHA said the suspects entered the main building of the facility in Gebze in the province of Kocaeli, at around 3 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) and took seven members of the staff hostage.

It claimed the suspects' actions were to highlight the loss of life in the Palestinian enclave. Some 27,000 have been killed in Israel's military operation since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.

Ismet Zihni said his wife Suheyla was among the hostages. Speaking from near the factory, he told DHA that he had called her. "She answered 'We've been taken hostage, we're fine' and she hung up," he said.

Police sealed off surrounding roads at the factory and were said to be trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers.