The Turkish Consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul was seized on Wednesday and the head of the diplomatic mission as well as 24 staff members were kidnapped by members of the Al-Qaeda-inspired armed group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a police colonel said.

The city of Tikrit kas also fallen to ISIL, and there is ongoing fighting in the city of Kirkuk. The colonel said he had spoken with one of the kidnappers, who said those held “are safe with us” and will be moved to a “safer place.” The kidnappings came a day after the Mosul consulate said ISIL fighters had seized 28 Turkish truck drivers.

“Certain militant groups in Mosul have been directly contacted to ensure the safety of diplomatic staff,” a Turkish government source said, adding that there was no immediate information on the status of the diplomats.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held an emergency meeting with the Undersecretary of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) and Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay to discuss the developments, Turkish media reported.

In a blow to the Shia-led government, ISIL on Tuesday seized Mosul, its surrounding region of Nineveh and areas of Kirkuk and Salaheddin province.

ISIL is a powerful, armed group in Iraq and a major force in the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Turkish forces have targeted ISIL in Syria and warned it against attacking a shrine in the northern province of Aleppo that is under Turkish jurisdiction.

ISIL fighters have also advanced into the oil-refinery town of Baiji, setting its courthouse and police station on fire and causing thousands of fearful residents to flee for safety, security sources said Wednesday.

The fighters sent a delegation of local tribal sheiks to persuade the 250 guards who protect Baiji’s main refinery to withdraw, security sources said.

The guards have reportedly agreed to pull out on condition that they be safely transferred to another town.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, speaking in Athens on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union and Arab League foreign ministers, said the country’s leaders must work together to deal with the “mortal threat” facing Iraq.

Zebari said he had assured his colleagues there would be “closer cooperation” between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government to push the insurgents out of Mosul, saying it was “dramatic” for a large city like Mosul to fall and the security forces to be overrun, but added that he was confident Iraqi security forces, along with the Kurdish peshmerga forces, would be able to push back the insurgents.

“There will be a closer cooperation between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government to work together and try to flush out these foreign fighters,” he told a small group of reporters.

Zebari, who is from Mosul himself, said there was no time to waste.

“You cannot leave these people to stay there, to entrench themselves for a long time. So there has to be really a quick response to what has happened,” he said.

“It could be an inducement to all [of Iraq’s leaders] to think about the greater interest and to resolve the problems and to form a new government on the basis of a national unity government,” he said.

The EU-Arab League meeting was to issue a joint statement of condemnation of the events later in the day.

Iraq’s state media is reporting that the head of Iraq’s counter-terrorism unit confirmed they had “crushed ISIL in Tikrit” and that the city is under “the full control of the Iraqi government.” State media also reported that the Iraqi Air force had destroyed a convoy of vehicles being used by ISIL in Ishaqi, in the Balad district of the Salad ad Din Governorate, around 60 miles north of Baghdad.

Those reports have not been independently verified by Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, an estimated 500,000 people fled Mosul since ISIL took control of the city, according to the International Organization for Migration. Mosul is the second major Iraqi city to be captured by fighters this year, after Fallujah.

An estimated 1,300 ISIL fighters overran Iraqi security forces and seized Mosul’s airport early on Tuesday.

There the group stormed government buildings, television stations and banks. Fighters also freed an estimated 2,400 prisoners from jails in the northern Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Mosul, which has a population of almost 2 million, is the main export route for Iraq’s oil.

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, called for a national state of emergency on Tuesday after his government lost control of Mosul and other parts of Nineveh.

“We will not allow Mosul to be under the banner of terrorism,” Maliki said. “We call on all international organizations to support Iraq and its stance in fighting terrorism. The entire world will suffer if terrorism spreads.”

He said the government would arm civilians who volunteered “to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism.”

The U.S., which invaded Iraq in 2003, condemned the seizure of the city and described the situation as “extremely serious.”

“ISIL is not only a threat to the stability of Iraq, but a threat to the entire region,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, adding that the U.S. backed “a strong coordinated response.”

Osama al-Nujaifi, Iraq’s parliamentary speaker, said Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts in Mosul when the attack began, action he described as “a dereliction of duty.”

Nujaifi, who is the brother of Atheel al-Nujaifi, Nineveh’s governor, said he had asked the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad for help in order to stop what he described as “a foreign invasion by ISIL.”

He added that parliament on Thursday would discuss Maliki’s call for a state of emergency, which has garnered criticism because it would grant the prime minister sweeping powers many are afraid he will not relinquish.

Al Jazeera and wire services