Attack on İmamoğlu election rally leaves attendees injured

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Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of İstanbul and a vice presidential candidate of the Nation's Alliance, was attacked during an election rally in Erzurum yesterday.

A group of individuals attacked the bus where İmamoğlu was speaking and hurled stones at the crowd in the square. Despite the chaos and the injuries, the police did not intervene, which led İmamoğlu to publicly criticize the local police force and call for legal action to be taken against them.

According to İmamoğlu, the police did nothing to stop the attackers, even though they were only a few meters away from them. The attack resulted in injuries to several citizens, and the bus that İmamoğlu was traveling in was damaged.

Following the incident, İmamoğlu spoke to reporters at İstanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, expressing his anger at the lack of intervention by the police and the lack of concern shown by local officials.

"As those people were throwing stones, I saw a child's head starting to bleed. An old lady's eye started to bleed. An uncle's head was split open, he collapsed on the ground. Stones were raining down on us. My friends protected me," he said. "Those people were waiting helplessly. The police did not intervene. No precautions were taken. There was a TOMA [riot control vehicle] present, but not a single drop of water was sprayed."

İmamoğlu blamed the incident on "instigators" who had organized the attack and described the police's lack of action as "disgraceful." İmamoğlu also criticized Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who he referred to as an "unscrupulous liar." (RT/AS/VK)