Hostage and two gunmen killed as police storm siege

Two members of a banned leftist group and the man they took hostage have died following a shoot-out.

Turkish special forces stormed an Istanbul court-house last night, where the hostage, a state prosecutor, was being held in his office.

The hostages were killed in the shoot-out, while the prosecutor died in hospital, said Istanbul police chief Selami Altunok.

Police had negotiated with the gunmen for six hours before the violent end to the situation, Altunok said.

Private news agency Dogan earlier reported police special forces had entered the building, which was evacuated. It was not clear how the assailants got the guns into the courthouse.

The state-run Anadolu Agency and state television, TRT identified the prosecutor as Mehmet Selim Kiraz.

He is the prosecutor investigating the death of a teenager who was hit by a police gas canister fired during nationwide anti-government protests in 2013.

A website close to the left-wing DHKP-C group said that militants from the banned organisation had taken the prosecutor hostage at midday and had given authorities three hours to meet five demands, including forcing policemen held responsible for the teenager’s killing to confess to the death.

The group also demanded that the policemen be tried by “people’s courts” and for court officials to drop prosecutions or investigations against people who took part in protests denouncing the boy’s death.

The website showed a picture of someone holding a gun to a man’s head with posters from the group in the background.

Deputy chief prosecutor Orhan Kapici confirmed that the incident was related to Kiraz’s investigation into the boy’s death.

The DHKP-C, which seeks a socialist state, is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, and the EU.

The group has carried out sporadic attacks, including a suicide bombing at the US embassy in 2013 which killed a security guard. The group was more active in the 1970s.