Dozens attend open-casket ceremony for Andrei Karlov, killed in Ankara by man shouting ‘Don’t forget Aleppo’. Russia has staged a sombre memorial ceremony for Andrei Karlov, the ambassador to Turkey shot dead in Ankara by a man shouting “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar”.

Russia and Turkey described the assassination on Monday as a failed attempt to derail a rapprochement between Moscow and Ankara, which has seen them cooperate more closely over Syria, where they have backed different sides in the conflict.

Diplomats and family members gathered at the Russian foreign ministry, a looming Stalin-era skyscraper in central Moscow, to bid farewell to Karlov, who was 62.

TV footage showed Karlov’s body lying in an open casket in the building’s marble lobby, flanked by a uniformed honour guard, as mourners including the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, and the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, approached to lay flowers.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is also expected to pay his respects at the ministry.