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One monitoring group says there have been 290 murders of women this year. Image Credit: Pexels

Istanbul: A man suspected of killing two young women in Istanbul took his own life Friday, said the city authorities, the latest in a series of murders of women in Turkey.

The DHA news agency said the man had beheaded one of his two victims on the city's historic ramparts.

The suspect and the two women were all aged 19, said Istanbul officials. The women had been killed within 30 minutes of each other, they added. It was not known if they knew their attacker.

Turkey has struggled to contain a wave of killings of women.

One monitoring group says there have been 290 murders of women this year, with more than 160 "suspect" killings officially classed as suicides or accidents.

In 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Council of Europe convention on preventing violence against women, known as the Istanbul convention.

It obliges national authorities to investigate and sanction violence against women.