World Press Photo 2017: Russia envoy killing picture wins award

The winners of the World Press Photo 2017 contest, selected from more than 80,000 images, have been announced. Here are some of the winning photographs.

WARNING: THIS GALLERY CONTAINS PICTURES THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND DISTURBING

An image of the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, has taken first prize in the 2017 World Press Photo awards.

Taken on 19 December 2016 at an art gallery in Ankara by Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici, it shows gun-wielding off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Altintas shouting, after fatally shooting the ambassador.

The jury chair, Stuart Franklin, praised Ozbilici's image. "I think it is an incredibly hard-hitting news photograph, great spot news story. It wasn't just a photograph, it was a spot news story and I think that Burhan was incredibly courageous and had extraordinary composure in being able to sort of calm himself down in the middle of the affray and take the commanding pictures that he took."

Ozbilici also triumphed in the Spot News, Stories, award for his series on the event, titled An Assassination in Turkey.

The World Press Photo awards have been running since 1955. This year, the jury awarded prizes in eight categories to 45 photographers from 25 countries.

Daniel Berehulak, for The New York Times, won first prize in the General News (Stories) category for They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals, which included this image of inmates watching as drug suspects are processed inside a police station in Manila, Philippines.

Laurent Van der Stockt, Getty Reportage for Le Monde, won the General News (Singles) prize for this next image.

The photos shows a scene during an Iraqi Special Operations Forces search of houses in Gogjali, an eastern district of Mosul, on 2 November 2016.

Sergey Ponomarev, for The New York Times, took second place in the General News (Stories) prize for his 12 November photo of a family fleeing the fighting in Mosul, as oil fields in Qayyara burn in the background.

Valery Melnikov won the Long-Term Projects first prize for Black Days Of Ukraine.

This image of a couple fleeing a fire at a house destroyed by an air attack in the Luhanskaya village, is one from the series for Russian international news agency Rossiya Segodnya.

Second prize in the same category went to Hossein Fatemi of Panos Pictures, for An Iranian Journey.

Over the years, Fatemi has tried to document all parts of Iran's complex society, lifting the veil on some of the less observed areas of daily life. This image shows two young women dancing together.

Amber Bracken came first for Contemporary Issues (Stories) for a project on protesters fighting against a new oil pipeline in Standing Rock, a Sioux Native American reservation in North Dakota.

This image shows a man being treated with milk of magnesia after being pepper-sprayed at the police blockade on highway 1806 near Cannon Ball.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica smiles as he looks back at his competition, while winning the 100-metre semi-final sprint, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in this shot captured by Kai Oliver Pfaffenbach. It was third place in the Sport (Singles) category.

Francis Perez won the Nature (Singles) prize for this next image.

Taken on 8 June 2016, the picture shows a sea turtle entangled in a fishing net off the coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands.

National Geographic Magazine photographer Brent Stirton won first prize Nature (Stories) for Rhino Wars.

In this shot, two rhino poachers, one 19, the other 28 years old, who have been apprehended by an anti-poaching team in Mozambique close to Kruger National Park border, are waiting to be processed in the local jail.

Second Prize for Nature (Stories) went to Ami Vitale, also for National Geographic Magazine, for Pandas Gone Wild.

This image shows Ye Ye, a 16-year-old giant panda, lounging in a massive wild enclosure at a conservation centre in Wolong Nature Reserve,

In order to enter the priesthood in the Orthodox religion in Russia, you must first become a monk or get married. Here Vladimir marries Vittoria. This photo taken by Francesco Comello was part of a series which won third prize in Daily Life (Stories).

Trucks carry students home after the carriage carrying Fidel Castro's ashes passed by, in Las Tunas Province, Cuba. Tomas Munita's photo won the Daily Life (Stories) category.

Sisters Olga and Adelina Lim Hi, two of the few Korean descendants in Cuba who do not have mixed heritage, were the subject of Michael Vince Kim's photo. He won first prize for People (Stories).

The women's grandfather was Im Cheon Taek, one of the leading figures of the earliest Korean community in Cuba.

The winners and finalists will feature in a touring exhibition which opens in Amsterdam on 20 April 2017.

You can view the full set of prize-winning images at www.worldpressphoto.org.