Istanbul nightclub suspect 'confesses to New Year's Eve massacre'

Man identified as 34-year-old Uzbek national found with his four-year-old son after 17-day manhunt across Turkey

The suspect has been identified as 34-year-old Uzbek citizen Abdulgadir Masharipov (Handout)

The captured suspect behind the deadly Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year's Eve has reportedly admitted to carrying out the crime, the city's governor had said.

Abdulgadir Masharipov, a 34-year-old Uzbek citizen, was apprehended by police late on Monday, Vasip Sahin said.

Turkish media published pictures and video of a man with a black eye and wearing a white t-shirt covered in blood being led by plain-clothes police officers to a vehicle.

He has allegedly confessed to entering the upmarket Reina nightclub and shooting partygoers in the early hours of New Year's Day, reloading an automatic rifle six times to target those who were lying the ground. The attack killed 39 and injured 70.

Mr Masharipov trained in Afghanistan as part of an Isis cell before illegally entering Turkey in January 2016, and his fingerprints matched those found at the scene, Mr Sahin said.

"He knew four languages and is well educated," the governor added.

He was arrested along with four other suspects - two Iraqi men and two African women whose nationalities were not disclosed - in an outer suburb of the city. Mr Masharipov's four-year-old son was also with him at the time of the arrest.

Earlier, Turkey's prime minister said that the man was being questioned by police and expressed hope that the interrogation would unveil the "forces" behind the attack, which Isis claimed as revenge for Turkey's role in the Syrian conflict.

Mr Sahin did not provide any further details on the arrest or the investigation. He said the authorities would provide details "in time."

The arrest comes after a 17-day manhunt across the country in which dozens of people were arrested on suspicion of helping Mr Masharipov plan the attack.

On Monday, Turkey's deputy prime minister Norman Kurtulmus said that investigators believed that the shooting was "not just a terrorist organisation's act" but that an intelligence organisation had also been involved.