Turkish forces shoot dead ferry hijacker

A Turkish official says a Kurdish rebel who was shot dead by security forces after a 12-hour hostage drama on a ferry carrying 24 passengers and crew was wearing fake explosives.

Authorities say Turkish security forces ended the hijacking by killing the man in a pre-dawn lightning raid off the port town of Silivri, west of Istanbul, on Saturday. No one else was hurt.

Gov. Ercan Topaca of the northwestern Kocaeli province says an examination of the hijacker's body revealed that he had a fake bomb with some electrical wiring.

The hijacker, seeking to attract attention to Turkey's fight against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels, seized the Kartepe ferry after it set sail from the northwestern port of Izmit in Kocaeli province on Wednesday evening.