Selfie footage shows 'Istanbul nightclub attacker' in tourist spot before massacre

Police say they know the identity of the attacker

Selfie footage has emerged of the man Turkish police claim attacked the Reina nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Day.

Police released images of the suspected attacker and said they had information about his fingerprints.

The gunman killed a policeman and another man outside the club in the early hours of 2017, before entering and firing at an estimated 600 people partying inside. Some 180 bullets were sprayed at the crowd, leaving 39 people dead. One man survived only because a bullet struck his phone.

The new footage showed the man in Taksim Square, Sky News reported.

Police, acting on a tip-off, were carrying out an operation at a home in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu neighbourhood, Haber Turk news channel reported.

The private Dogan news agency said the operation was being carried out by special operations police with backing from a helicopter.

Earlier Turkish authorities had said they were close to identifying the gunman and have arrested eight other people, the government's spokesman said.

"Information about the fingerprints and basic appearance of the terrorist have been found. In the process after this, work to identify him swiftly will be carried out," Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told a news conference.

The brutal nightclub assault lasted seven minutes. It is thought the attacker then changed his clothes and disappeared.

Citing Justice Ministry officials, the Anadolu news agency reported that 38 of the 39 dead have been identified.

The report said 11 of them were Turkish nationals, and one was a Turkish-Belgian dual citizen.

It adds that seven victims were from Saudi Arabia; three each were from Lebanon and Iraq; two each were from Tunisia, India, Morocco and Jordan. Kuwait, Canada, Israel, Syria and Russia each lost one citizen.

Mehmet Dag, who watched the catastrophe unfold from the street, said: “The man targeted the security there ... he took most of them down and went inside.

“Once he went in, we don’t know what happened. There were gun sounds and after two minutes, the sound of an explosion.”