TENSIONS escalated between Turkey and Russia today with the detention of four journalists from the Russian Sputnik news agency in Ankara and Istanbul.

Three journalists were held when they attended a police station in the Turkish capital to report what appeared to be co-ordinated attacks on their homes by Turkish nationalists on Saturday night.

Hours later Sputnik editor-in-chief for Turkey Mahir Boztepe was held during a police raid on the agency’s Istanbul office and taken to the General Directorate of Security.