Associated Press photographer Burhan Ozbilici was awarded Photo of the Year for his powerful picture of Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş after he shot and killed Russia’s Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, at an art gallery in Ankara on December 19.

Mary Calvert, member of the judging jury, said the “explosive” winning photo “spoke to the hatred of our times”.

“Every time it came on the screen you almost had to move back because it was such an explosive image and we really felt that it epitomises the definition of what the World Press Photo of the Year is and means,” Calvert said.

The 2017 contest drew entries from around the world, with 5,034 photographers from 125 countries submitting a whopping 80,408 images.

The jury gave prizes in eight categories to 45 photographers from 25 countries.

Australian Cameron Spencer of Getty Images won second place in the sports category for the image The Dive, of French tennis player Gaël Monfils.

World Press Photo 2017

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Controversially, his now-iconic image of Usain Bolt flashing a smile while winning the 100-metre sprint semi-final at the Olympic Games in Rio last year, was snubbed.

But a similar image by Reuters photographer Kai Oliver Pfaffenbach, taken from a slightly different angle, won third prize.

Another Aussie to be recognised was Daniel Berehulak, whose photo series for the New York Times capturing the brutality of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign won first prize in the general news stories category.

Winning images this year cover a range of subjects, from war and conflict to social unrest as well as lighter matters like animal conservation.

The prize-winning photographs will now be assembled into an exhibition that travels to 45 countries and is seen by more than four million people each year.

In addition, the Digital Storytelling Contest rewards those producing the best forms of visual journalism enabled by digital technologies and the spread of the internet.