No less than 39 individuals, including 16 foreigners, have lost their lives in a attack on a dance club in Turkey, Istanbul's senator said.
Among the dead at the Istanbul club is one police officer, Vasip Sahin said, including that it was a terror attack.
Another 69 were injured in the attack which occurred in the Reina nightclub, in the Ortakoy region, at around 01:30 local time (22:30 GMT).
The Turkish government have forced a media outage on reporting the attack.
One assailant was included, said the governor , while CNN Turk reported he was wearing a Santa Claus outfit.
"A terrorist with a snipers weapon … fiercely and brutally did this episode by shooting at persons who were there exclusively to celebrate the New Year and have a ton of fun," Sahin told reporters at the scene of the nightclub,
The club was prominent with Turks, as well as with foreigners too, says BBC's Selin Girit in Istanbul.
She said it was hazy what had happened to the shooter at this stage – adding that a few observers talked about there being not one but rather two attackers.
There were purportedly upto of 700 individuals in the club at the point of the attack, some of whom have jumped into the water to get away.
Dogan news office reported that a few witnesses asserted the attackers were "communicating in Arabic" while Turkish TV station NTV said special police officers searched the club.
US President Barack Obama, who is on vacation in Hawaii, was among the first worldwide leaders speak about the attack in the wake of being informed by his group.
"The president showed sympathies for the honest lives lost, guided his group to offer fitting help to the Turkish government, as essential, and keep him up to date as warranted," White House representative Eric Schultz said in an announcement.
The Turkish government has requested a brief media power outage in the wake of the assault, referring to security and open request concerns.
This is not the first run through such a request has been made.
Istanbul was at that point on high caution with exactly 17,000 police on duty in the city, taking after a string of fear assaults as of late.
Many were done by purported Islamic State (IS) or Kurdish attackers
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