(Image source from: Telegraph)

Police have been called to the Pennsylvania compound of the United States-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey of instigating a failed 2016 coup after a guard fired a shot at a suspected armed intruder.

As the person tried to enter the compound's gates, the security guard fired a warning shot, and the intruder fled, said Gulen spokesman Alp Aslandogan. There were no arrests or injuries, he said.

"Just one shot was fired," Aslandogan said. "The person disappeared. The incident is over as far as we're concerned."

At the time, Gulen was inside his residence on the compound.

According to photographs shared online by local news reporters, several Pennsylvania state police cars were seen around the sprawling gated compound and retreat in Saylorsburg in the Pocono Mountains.

A local television station, WNEP, reported that police were still probing for the suspected intruder.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government accuse Gulen of orchestrating an attempted coup in July 2016, in which rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets, bombing parliament. More than 240 people were killed in the violence.

Gulen denies the accusations.

Erdogan has repeatedly demanded that the United States extradite Gulen to Turkey, arduous relations between the two Nato allies. Washington has asked for more compelling evidence of Gulen’s involvement in the attempted coup.

Andrew Brunson, the U.S. evangelical pastor has been held under house arrest in Turkey after authorities charged him with relations to Gulen supporters Kurdish militants, an accusation he has denied. That case has turned a primal issue in the deteriorating diplomatic conflict between the two countries, leading to the U.S. sanctions.

By Sowmya Sangam