British embassy in Ankara closed for security reasons

The British government has shut its embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Friday for security reasons, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said on its website, without giving further details.

#Turkey https://t.co/pPYVKBppVq The British Embassy Ankara will be closed to the public on Friday 16 September for security reasons

— FCO travel advice (@FCOtravel) September 15, 2016

The embassy had been closed from Monday to Thursday for the Eid al-Adha holiday, one of the two most important festivals of the Islamic calendar. Turkey has been repeatedly targeted in the past by militants, both Islamist and Kurdish.

A suicide bomber at a wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep in August killed more than 54 people, including 22 children, the deadliest such bombing in 2016. That attack is believed to have been carried out by Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also advised Britons against travel to within 10 kilometres of the Syrian border and to Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast, which has been hit by waves of violence since the end of a ceasefire between the state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2015.