Turkish police today arrested a 16-year-old student as the suspected killer of an Italian Catholic priest.

Andrea Santoro was shot twice in the back on Sunday while praying in his church on the Black Sea coast.

Witnesses say the killer screamed "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," before firing two bullets into Santoro's back as he kneeled to pray inside the Santa Maria Church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon.

Prosecutor Burhan Cobanoglu identified the juvenile as O.A. and said he was captured while hiding at a relative's home in Trabzon.

The high-school student was under interrogation at the police headquarters.

Police also seized a 9 mm handgun during the raid, the Anatolia news agency said. The gun would be sent to a laboratory for ballistic tests, it added.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie