Three dead as Istanbul hostage situation ends in shootout

A prosecutor who was held hostage by members of a banned leftist group inside a courthouse in Istanbul has died after police attempted to free him, Turkish officials said.

The prosecutor died of gunshot wounds he sustained in a police shootout with the hostage-takers, Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said the prosecutor had been shot in the head and several other parts of his body and was in surgery.

Two militants who had held the prosecutor hostage in his office were also killed in the shootout with Turkish police.

Police had negotiated with the gunmen for six hours before the hostage situation came to a violent end.

News agency Dogan earlier reported police special forces had entered the building, which had been evacuated.

It was not clear how the assailants managed to get their weapons into the courthouse.

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

Mr Kiraz is 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 (the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front) 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 the policemen held responsible for the teenager’s death to confess to the killing.

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 teenager’s death.

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

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

Chronology

The hostage situation began when the far-left Turkish group took the prosecutor hostage in his office and threatened to kill him, prompting special forces to enter the courthouse and police to evacuate the building.

The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party Front published a picture of the prosecutor with a gun to his head and had said it would kill him at 12.36 GMT (13.36 Irish time), three hours after gunmen stormed the office, unless its demands were met.

Turkish television stations cut live broadcasts as the deadline passed, some citing a reporting ban.

Police said negotiators were speaking to two militants in an attempt to end the stand-off.

“Our negotiators and Umit Kocasakal, the head of the Istanbul Bar Association, are talking to the militants,” Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altunok said.

“We are trying to resolve the issue without anyone being hurt.”

Dogan news agency said some shots were fired inside earlier in the incident.

Reaction

In a brief video message on a widely followed Twitter account describing itself as that of the late teenager’s family, his father appeared to call on the group not to harm the prosecutor.

"We want justice. We don't want anyone to shed even a drop of blood. We don't want other mothers to cry," Sami Elvan said.

Mr Davutoglu met with current and former interior and justice ministers at the ruling AK Party headquarters in Ankara to discuss the hostage crisis, officials in his office said.

Television footage showed special forces officers entering the courthouse and officials being escorted out. Armed police officers, many wearing flak jackets, surrounded the building and fire engines were positioned outside.

The far-left group, which seeks a socialist state, is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.

It was behind a suicide bombing at the US embassy in 2013. In 2001, two policemen and an Australian tourist died in an attack mounted by it in central Istanbul.

The group was more active in the 1970s.

Reuters/PA