One wounded by gunman at Swedish consulate in Turkey

One person was seriously wounded when an armed man opened fire at Sweden’s honorary consulate in Turkey’s Aegean province of Izmir, local authorities announced on Tuesday.

The attack, which took place at 12:45 p.m. Turkey time, became public after a statement the Izmir provincial governor's office released Tuesday evening local time.

The statement said a Turkish national who was wounded in the attack was taken to a hospital.

Though the governor's office did not elaborate, Turkish media outlets identified the wounded as a female employee of the honorary consulate, saying that she was in serious condition.

The assailant was caught as he was fleeing the scene with the weapon, Turkey’s private Demiroren news agency reported.  

It remains unclear how he made his way inside the consulate with a gun, but honorary consular offices do not enjoy the same level of protection the official consular offices have under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The attack comes as a series of Quran-burning protests that took place in Sweden and Denmark over the past few weeks have drawn an outcry from Muslim-majority nations across the world. Yet the motives of the perpetrator were not immediately clear.  

The official statement on Tuesday, which identified the suspect by his initials, Z.O., said he suffers from poor mental health.

According to unconfirmed reports, the assailant perpetrated the attack over the rejection of his visa application.

An investigation into the attack is ongoing.

This developing story has been updated since its initial publication.