Russia's ambassador to Turkey was shot dead today when a lone gunman fired at him at a photo exhibition in Ankara, Turkey's capital, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News. The attack was caught on camera.

Andrey Karlov, the ambassador, died from his wounds, she said, adding that Russia was calling the shooting a terrorist attack.

“Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria. Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria," the gunman yelled in Turkish during the attack. "Until these places are safe you will not taste any safety either.”

Images of the gunman, who has been identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, show a thin man with dark hair gripping his pistol tightly with both hands.

Altintas, 22, was a member of the riot police in Ankara, which enabled him to enter the building through the use of his police I.D. card, according to Interior Ministry sources.

Burhan Ozbilici, a photographer for The Associated Press, witnessed the shooting, and wrote an account of it for the agency.

"The event was routine enough -- the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia — and when a man on stage pulled out a gun I thought it was a theatrical flourish," Ozbilici wrote about the incident. "It was anything but. Moments later the Russian ambassador was sprawled on the floor and the attacker was waving his gun at the rest of us, shouting slogans."

Altintas was ultimately killed by the Turkish Anti-Terror police, the Interior Ministry said. The ambassador was already dead by the time he arrived at the hospital, they added.

Three other people were injured during the incident but are said to be recovering.

Altintas' mother and sister were taken into custody in the city of Izmir after the shooting.

Burhan Ozbilici/AP Photo

According to Russia's state news agency, Tass, witnesses said Karlov was shot in the back by Altintas after he gave a speech at the Museum of Modern Art.

In a statement, the White House said the attack on Karlov was "heinous."

"The United States strongly condemns the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey ... which reportedly also left others wounded. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of Ambassador Karlov and the other victims, and we offer our condolences to the Russian people and Government. This heinous attack on a member of the diplomatic corps is unacceptable, and we stand united with Russia and Turkey in our determination to confront terrorism in all of its forms," according to the statement.

Russia's Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack.

"We strongly condemn this inhuman crime, which has the aim to undermine collective efforts to reach political settlement in Syria and the process of normalization of Russian-Turkish relations," the statement said.

Russia said it expected close cooperation from Turkey in its efforts to investigate the shooting.

"We expect the close cooperation from the Turkish authorities with representatives of the Russian investigative authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of all the circumstances of the barbaric crime, identify and punish the organizers, as well as the adoption of the most effective measures to ensure the security of Russian citizens, diplomatic missions and their personnel," the foreign ministry's statement said.

Karlov, 62, was a career diplomat, according to The Associated Press. He joined the diplomatic service in 1976.

He served as Russia's ambassador to North Korea from 2001 to 2006 and later worked as the chief of the Foreign Ministry's consular department. He served as the ambassador to Turkey since 2013.

Protests of Russia's role in the Syrian war have been prominent in Turkey.

The governments of both countries have collaborated to evacuate civilians from war-torn Aleppo.

Umit Bektas/Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Receo Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, spoke by telephone about Aleppo on Sunday and emphasized the need to swiftly overcome disruptions to the city's evacuation, sources in Erdogan's office told Reuters.

Turkey has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in recent years, the most prominent of which have been bombings.

Among those attacks were a suicide attack at a wedding this August and coordinated shootings and bombings of Istanbul's major international airport in June.

Both those attacks killed scores of civilians.

ABC News' Patrick Reevell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(abcNEWS)

Bana Alabed, the 7-year-old girl who chronicled daily life in war-torn Syria, has evacuated Aleppo with her family.

On Monday morning, pictures and video of the young girl with her mother, Fatemah, at a gathering site set up by international aid groups circulated online.

Ahmad Tarakji, the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, a nonpartisan nonprofit that offers relief to Syrians in need, tweeted a picture of himself holding Bana. He said she was just one of many children who fled Aleppo for the countryside and that his organization was working with the Union of Medical Care & Relief Organizations and others to coordinate a response plan.

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Ahmad Tarakji, MD @tarakjiahmad

.@AlabedBana and many children arrived to #Aleppocountryside. @sams_usa @UOSSM and partners arr coordinating the response plan there.

1:58 AM - 19 Dec 2016

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“I want to tell all the world how much kids and all people in east Aleppo are suffering from bombs and everything because there is no life there, so we created our Twitter to tell all the world what’s happened there,” Fatemah told the Syria-based Qasioun News Agencyon Monday, with Bana by her side.

Fatemah thanked all of their supporters and said she is happy their voices reached so many people. During evacuation, she said, they were on a bus without food or water for 24 hours and felt like prisoners or hostages.

Though she is happy to have reached safety, she said it is saddening that they needed to leave their home country at all.

“I leave my soul there. I want to take our freedom there, not to be like refugees in other countries,” she said. “I want for my kids a good future.”

Bana became a symbol of the toll warfare has on children with her regular dispatches from eastern Aleppo, which has been under perpetual bombardment as Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, assisted by the Kremlin, seized the area from rebels. With the help of her mother, she would routinely tweet about daily life in the city and the horrors of war. She has gained more than 300,000 Twitter followers since the account was launched in September.

Their last tweet before evacuating — written by Fatemah on Sunday — beseeched Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to do whatever they can to make sure the cease-fire worked and help their family reach safety.

They made a similar appeal to United States first lady Michelle Obama last week and have been in contact with British novelist J.K. Rowling, who sent the young girl a complete digital set of her “Harry Potter” book series.

Supporters of the Alabed family hope that their appearance on Monday will finally quiet any speculation that their story was fabricated or merely propaganda by opposition forces. Skeptics would ask how they could tweet regularly when their neighborhood was under siege or why the little girl could speak English.

It’s worth noting that the Twitter account would occasionally go silent — or even go offline — prompting many followers to wonder whether Bana had been killed. Her mother has said that she studied English for three years and studied law. She told the BBC that she’s been teaching the language to her daughter since she was 4. She also learned how to spread a message from courses in politics and journalism.

The International Rescue Committee, which is dedicated to helping people suffering through the world’s worst crises, estimates that an average of 50 Syrian families are forces to flee their homes every single hour and that only 17,000 of 4 million Syrian refugees have resettled in other countries.

Overseen by the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the evacuation began on Dec. 15 but came to a temporary halt the following day along with a short-lived cease-fire. There were recriminations from each side of the conflict. AFP reported that evacuations recommenced Monday morning with thousands of Syrians leaving Aleppo for northern Syria.

DELIBERATE ATTACK KILLS AT LEAST 12 AT CHRISTMAS MARKET IN BERLIN

Quote:

Russia's ambassador to Turkey was shot dead today when a lone gunman fired at him at a photo exhibition in Ankara, Turkey's capital, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed to ABC News. The attack was caught on camera.

Andrey Karlov, the ambassador, died from his wounds, she said, adding that Russia was calling the shooting a terrorist attack.

“Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria. Don’t forget Aleppo, don’t forget Syria," the gunman yelled in Turkish during the attack. "Until these places are safe you will not taste any safety either.”

Images of the gunman, who has been identified as Mevlut Mert Altintas, show a thin man with dark hair gripping his pistol tightly with both hands.

Altintas, 22, was a member of the riot police in Ankara, which enabled him to enter the building through the use of his police I.D. card, according to Interior Ministry sources.

Burhan Ozbilici, a photographer for The Associated Press, witnessed the shooting, and wrote an account of it for the agency.

"The event was routine enough -- the opening of an exhibit of photographs of Russia — and when a man on stage pulled out a gun I thought it was a theatrical flourish," Ozbilici wrote about the incident. "It was anything but. Moments later the Russian ambassador was sprawled on the floor and the attacker was waving his gun at the rest of us, shouting slogans."

Altintas was ultimately killed by the Turkish Anti-Terror police, the Interior Ministry said. The ambassador was already dead by the time he arrived at the hospital, they added.

Three other people were injured during the incident but are said to be recovering.

Altintas' mother and sister were taken into custody in the city of Izmir after the shooting.

Burhan Ozbilici/AP Photo

According to Russia's state news agency, Tass, witnesses said Karlov was shot in the back by Altintas after he gave a speech at the Museum of Modern Art.

In a statement, the White House said the attack on Karlov was "heinous."

"The United States strongly condemns the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey ... which reportedly also left others wounded. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of Ambassador Karlov and the other victims, and we offer our condolences to the Russian people and Government. This heinous attack on a member of the diplomatic corps is unacceptable, and we stand united with Russia and Turkey in our determination to confront terrorism in all of its forms," according to the statement.

Russia's Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the attack.

"We strongly condemn this inhuman crime, which has the aim to undermine collective efforts to reach political settlement in Syria and the process of normalization of Russian-Turkish relations," the statement said.

Russia said it expected close cooperation from Turkey in its efforts to investigate the shooting.

"We expect the close cooperation from the Turkish authorities with representatives of the Russian investigative authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of all the circumstances of the barbaric crime, identify and punish the organizers, as well as the adoption of the most effective measures to ensure the security of Russian citizens, diplomatic missions and their personnel," the foreign ministry's statement said.

Karlov, 62, was a career diplomat, according to The Associated Press. He joined the diplomatic service in 1976.

He served as Russia's ambassador to North Korea from 2001 to 2006 and later worked as the chief of the Foreign Ministry's consular department. He served as the ambassador to Turkey since 2013.

Protests of Russia's role in the Syrian war have been prominent in Turkey.

The governments of both countries have collaborated to evacuate civilians from war-torn Aleppo.

Umit Bektas/Reuters

Turkish President Tayyip Receo Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, spoke by telephone about Aleppo on Sunday and emphasized the need to swiftly overcome disruptions to the city's evacuation, sources in Erdogan's office told Reuters.

Turkey has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in recent years, the most prominent of which have been bombings.

Among those attacks were a suicide attack at a wedding this August and coordinated shootings and bombings of Istanbul's major international airport in June.

Both those attacks killed scores of civilians.

ABC News' Patrick Reevell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(abcNEWS)