US Embassy in Ankara 'closed' after 'shooting incident'

No one was harmed when an individual approached the embassy overnight and fired shots, but the diplomatic corps are on high alert following Monday's assassination of the Russian ambassador

An ambulance leaves the art gallery where the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was shot dead, just across the street from the US Embassy (REUTERS)

The US Embassy in Ankara has closed its operations for 24 hours after a shooting incident overnight, just hours after the Russian ambassador to Turkey was assassinated.

An individual opened fire at 3.50am (00.50am GMT) in the embassy's vicinity before being detained by police, a statement said. No one was harmed.

The man took out a pump action shotgun he hid in his coat and fired around eight shots in the air before the embassy's security guards intervened and apparently overpowered him.

As a precaution, the US has shut the embassy in Ankara and consulates in Istanbul and Adana for the duration of Tuesday.

The news comes after the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was shot by an off-duty police officer at an art gallery in the city, dying of his injuries in hospital. The suspect shouted "Remember Syria! Remember Aleppo!" before being shot dead by security services.

The US Embassy is just across the street from where the attack occured. It is not known at this point whether the two incidents are related.

The White House was quick to condemn Mr Karlov's killing. "This heinous attack on a member of the diplomatic corps is unacceptable, and we stand united with Russia and Turkey in our determination to confront terrorism in all of its forms,” a spokesperson said.

Russia and Turkey, meanwhile, have said that the incident calls for greater cooperation between the two countries, which are due to meet, along with Iranian representatives, for talks on the future of the Syrian civil war in Moscow later today.

The assassination has widely been viewed as an attempt to derail the normalisation of ties between Moscow and Ankara.

Speaking on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he had spoken with his Turkish counterpart and the two men were agreed that Mr Karlov's death showed the need to "step up the fight against terrorism."

The embassies of several countries in Ankara have temporarily closed operations in the past after threats to the safety of staff have been made.

In September, both the UK and German embassies closed during Eid-al-Adha as a precaution after the Turkish security services warned of planned attacks.