A man in his late 20s has stormed a provincial office of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey's pro-Kurdish party, and shot dead an official. "What they wanted was a massacre," the HDP said.

A gunman on Thursday stormed a local office of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party in the western city of Izmir and shot dead a 20-year-old woman. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) identified the victim as Deniz Poyraz, saying she was a party official who had been covering a shift for her mother at the office.

According to the Izmir's governor's office, the gunman, identified by police as Onur Gencer, was in custody. He is a former health worker in his late 20s, it added. Local media said the suspect had tried to set the building on fire before shooting Poyraz, and said in a statement to police that he carried out the attack out of hate for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group.

The HDP is Turkey's third largest party with 55 seats in the country's 600-member parliament. The party says it supports liberal causes and advocates leftist economic views. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, views the HDP as the political front for the PKK. Erdogan's ruling AK Party has called for the HDP to be banned.

:kurdistan: > 🇹🇷