Two young women were murdered in Istanbul today, 30 minutes apart, and the main suspect took his own life, authorities said.

The two women and the suspect were aged 19, the Istanbul government said, which did not say whether the victims knew their alleged killer.

As reported by the Turkish news agency DHA, the attacker beheaded one of these women in one of the bastions of the city, in the Fatih district, from which the suspect then jumped and was killed.

According to Turkish media reports, he is a 19-year-old butcher by profession. His first victim was his current partner, while the woman he decapitated was his ex.

Turkey is reeling from the scourge of femicide: a Turkish organization has counted 290 murders of women since the beginning of the year and more than 160 “suspicious deaths,” which the authorities have listed as suicides or accidents.

At the end of February, seven femicides were committed in a single day across the country.

Turkey withdrew in 2021 from the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women, the so-called Istanbul Convention, which obliges authorities to investigate and punish violence against women.