Istanbul: At least 16 foreigners were among 39 people killed in the gun attack on an Istanbul club during New Year festivities, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Sunday.

Soylu said in televised comments that of 21 victims who have been identified so far, 16 are foreigners and five are Turks. Another 69 people are being treated in hospital for their wounds.

He confirmed that work was continuing to identify 18 other victims. Four of the wounded are in a serious condition, he added, including one in a very critical condition.

Indicating that the attacker was still at large, Soylu said: ‘The search for the terrorist continues. The police have started the necessary operations. I hope (the assailant) will be captured quickly, God willing.’

Turkey has been hit by a wave of attacks blamed on Kurdish militants and IS jihadists and 2016 saw more attacks than any other year in the history of the country.

On December 10, 44 people were killed in a double bombing in Istanbul after a football match hosted by top side Besiktas, an attack claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) seen as a radical offshoot of the outlawed PKK rebel group.

In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, with authorities blaming IS.

And in one of the most brazen strikes, an off-duty policeman assassinated Russia’s ambassador to Turkey in an Ankara art gallery less than two weeks ago.

‘Tragic start to 2017’

‘No terror attack will destroy our unity, or eradicate our fraternity or weaken Turkey’s effective fight against terror,’ Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote on Twitter.

Mainly Muslin Turkey’s religious affairs agency Diyanet condemned the attack, saying the fact it took place in a nightclub ‘was no different to it being in a market or place of worship’.

Turkey is still reeling from a failed July coup blamed by the government on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his alleged supporters from state institutions.

‘Tragic start to 2017 in Istanbul,’ NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.

The White House condemned the ‘savagery’ of the attack, with National Security Council spokesman Ned Price saying that Washington reaffirmed its support for its NATO ally ‘in our shared determination to confront and defeat all forms of terrorism’.

The US embassy warned citizens that extremist groups are continuing ‘aggressive efforts to conduct attacks in areas where US citizens and expatriates reside or frequent.’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Istanbul for the New Year, had been informed of the attack, local media said.

The shooting spree came as the Turkish army wages a four-month incursion in Syria to oust IS jihadists and Kurdish militants from the border area, suffering increasing casualties.

As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident.