September 24, 2011 - 14:45 AMT
Erdogan assaulted in UN building

An unidentified man on Friday, September 23 tried to assault Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

Erdogan's bodyguards immediately stopped the man. Erdogan himself was not injured during the incident.

Israeli Minister of Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein, who witnessed the attack outside the General Assembly hall, described it as a “very violent incident. Like a scene out of a movie.”

The circumstances of the incident were still unclear, but some claim it may be connected to the internal conflict taking place between Turkey and the Kurdish rebels, Ynetnews reported.