Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's car was targeted by the coup plotters on the night of the attempt, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said on Tuesday.

Speaking in a televised interview, he said, "The coup plotters also fired at Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's vehicle."

Turkish media reported that Yıldırım was on the Asian side of Istanbul when the coup attempt started. Although he decided to return Ankara immediately via land due to security concerns about going by air, his convoy decided to pass the Kastamonu province near Ankara following news reports that clashes in the capital had intensified.

Prime Minister Yıldırım stopped for over an hour and a half to receive information from Ankara. As he continued on his route, gendarmerie forces opened fire at a vehicle behind the convoy and caused the prime minister to change his route again. With the continuing armed conflict in Ankara, Yıldırım had to stay at the house of a district governor in the area and led the process of rebuffing the coup attempt in Ankara from that house.

He continued his route and returned to Ankara in 12 hours.

Elsewhere, the coup plotters wanted to abduct Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to a coup victim in a hospital in Ankara, he said the coup plotters wanted to abduct him in the early hours of the coup attempt while he was in Istanbul.

"We heard the news. Then they came to take me. The first tanks wanted to do this but citizens blockaded it and it could not come. Then they came with a helicopter and landed in an area right across from where we were staying. There were nine masked and armed people. I had already left home with my wife. The police were there and opened fire on them. They escaped in a helicopter again while citizens were approaching."