Turkey detains hundreds after anti-Syrian riots

Turkish authorities have detained over 470 people after anti-Syrian riots in several cities sparked by online accusations that a Syrian man had sexually harassed a child. Tensions escalated after violence in a central Anatolian city on Sunday, where a mob went on the rampage and damaged businesses and properties belonging to Syrians. The violence spread to the provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep, Konya, Bursa, and an Istanbul district, Turkey's MIT intelligence agency said in a statement. In one of the riot videos shared online, a Turkish man was heard shouting: "We don't want any more Syrians! We don't want any more foreigners." Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Syrian child was tortured and killed. The riots were stoked by social media reports that a Syrian man allegedly sexually abused a little girl. The incident is still being investigated. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the opposition for stoking tensions and condemned the anti-Syrian violence as "unacceptable". Turkey, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees according to UN data, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumours spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.