Egypt arrests 4 in raid on Turkish news agency

ISTANBUL: Egypt arrested four employees of Turkish state news agency Anadolu on Wednesday after a raid on its Cairo office at a time of rising tensions between the regional rivals, the agency said.

Following the raid on Tuesday, Egyptian police searched the Cairo office through the night before formally arresting four employees: one Turk and three Egyptians. The Turk, Hilmi Balci, was in charge of finance and administrative duties for the office.

Turkey summoned Egypt's charge d'affaires on Wednesday to protest the raid. "This is an act of harassment and intimidation against the Turkish press and we strongly condemn it," Turkey's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"We expect Egyptian authorities to immediately release (Anadolu's) employees," it added. The Turkish and Egyptian governments are fierce rivals, since Ankara strongly supported Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood administration that was overthrown by a military coup in 2013.