Turkish embassy hostage taker arrested

A Palestinian who broke into the Turkish Embassy in Israel trying to take hostages and demanding asylum has been turned over to Israeli authorities ending a tense standoff.

Seven hours after he forced his way into the embassy, the attacker was escorted out of the building and bundled into an Israeli ambulance.

Wearing a light blue shirt and limping slightly from an apparent gunshot wound, he raised his arms briefly and shouted before Israeli police and paramedics subdued him.

An hour earlier, the Turkish government said it had the situation in hand. "Our embassy guards neutralised the individual as he tried to take the vice consul as hostage after shouting around for asylum," the Turkish statement said.

It added that the man was armed with a knife, a gasoline can and a gun that turned out to be a toy.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor identified the attacker as Nadim Injaz, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Israeli police said Injaz was recently released from prison after serving time for an attack on the British Embassy four years ago, also to seek asylum.