Fenerbahce Istanbul urges league suspension after attack

Turkey's Fenerbahce football team called Sunday for the suspension of the national league championship in response to an armed attack on its team bus as players returned from a match.

"We consider that as long as this attack is not solved in a way that satisfies Fenerbahce and public opinion, a suspension of the championship is inevitable," the Istanbul club said on its website.

"Blood ran and football was silenced. Finding and punishing the culprits is of vital importance for Fenerbahce." The bus came under gunfire late Saturday as the Turkish Super Lig leaders passed through the northeastern town of Trabzon following their away game in nearby Rize, where they beat Rizespor 5-1, said the club's vice president Mahmut Uslu.

No players were hurt, but the driver was wounded in the face, Uslu said, accusing the still unidentified assailants of having tried to "crash the bus and kill the players". "A black mark for Turkish football," the daily Hurriyet newspaper said in its report.

Pictures of the bus showed a damaged windshield on the driver's side. Trabzon governor Abdil Celil Oz confirmed the gun attack on the bus and said the driver's life was not in danger.

"At first we thought stones had been thrown at the bus but police investigators at the scene have concluded it was an armed attack," he told the television station 360.

The governor said he received a phone call from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of the Istanbul club, asking him about the investigation into the attack.