Catholic priest shot dead

An Italian Roman Catholic priest was shot dead in his church in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon yesterday, police said.

They gave no more details, but CNN Turk television said police were looking for a young man aged about 17 years old seen fleeing the scene.

CNN Turk showed a small crowd of onlookers near the Santa Maria church where the priest was killed. The state Anatolian news agency identified the dead man as Andrea Santaro, aged 60. Other Turkish media said he had been in Turkey about five years.

Anatolian quoted Trabzon governor Huseyin Yavuzdemir as saying: "We condemn this attack against a man of religion... There are witnesses. The police are trying to catch the suspect based on information the witnesses gave."

The gunman's motive was unclear. Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim and has only a tiny Christian population. Turkey, like many other Muslim countries, has seen regular protests in recent days against cartoons published in several European newspapers depicting the Prophet Mohammad.