Bloody climax to Turkey prosecutor hostage crisis

Istanbul, 31 March 2015 (MIA) - A Turkish prosecutor has been badly wounded and two gunmen who took him hostage killed after a shootout at a courthouse in Istanbul, officials say.

Gunshots were heard and smoke was seen rising from the scene, after special forces reportedly entered the building.

The prosecutor was apparently taken hostage because he had headed an inquiry into the death of a boy during anti-government protests in 2013.

A banned Marxist revolutionary group is said to be behind the incident. A statement posted online said the prosecutor would be killed if the group's demands were not met.

Dramatic images were seen on social media of a gun being held to the head of Mehmet Selim Kiraz at a court house in Istanbul. The Turkish government banned live TV coverage of the incident, citing security concerns.

Sukriye Erden, a lawyer negotiating with the hostage takers, told the BBC that they had demanded that the police announce the names of four members of the security services whom they said were connected to the death of the boy, Berkin Elvan.

Elvan, who was then 14, was struck in the head by a police tear gas canister in June 2013 as he went to buy bread during mass demonstrations that began in Istanbul and spread across Turkey.

He died in an Istanbul hospital last year, after spending nine months in a coma.

Suspected members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) took the prosecutor hostage on the sixth floor of the Caglayan court house, reports said.

The DHKP-C is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and US. It said it carried out a suicide bombing in February 2013 at the US embassy in Ankara, where a security guard was killed.

In January, a man linked to the banned Marxist group was arrested near the prime minister's offices in Istanbul, reportedly after throwing two grenades that failed to explode.