Members of a banned leftist group took a chief prosecutor hostage in
his office inside a courthouse in Istanbul, Turkish news agencies and
the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
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| An alleged militant from the Turkish Marxist-Leninist left wing organization, the DHKP-C, holds a gun to the head of prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz |
The Private Dogan news
agency said some shots were fired inside the building. The state-run
Andalou news agency and state television TRT named the prosecutor as
Mehmet Selim Kiraz.
Two gunshots were heard as security forces
tried to gain access to the office, on the sixth floor of the building,
Andalou reported. The agency said it is not known if anyone was injured.
Police said negotiators were speaking to two militants in attempts to end the standoff, the AP said.
"There
is no problem concerning any of our colleagues. Our negotiators and
Umit Kocasakal, the head of the Istanbul Bar Association, are talking to
the militants," Istanbul Police Chief Selami Altunok said, according to
the agency.
He added: "We are trying to resolve the issue without anyone being hurt."
Kiraz
is investigating the death of teenager Berkin Elvan, who was critically
injured when he was hit by a police gas canister fired during
nationwide anti-government protests in 2013, Andalou reported.
A
website close to the banned DHKP-C group said that militants from the
organization took the prosecutor hostage at midday and gave authorities
three hours to meet five demands, including forcing policemen held
responsible for Elvan's killing to confess, the AP reported.
The
Andalou agency describes the DHKP-C as a Marxist-Leninist party founded
in 1978, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the
European Union and the United States.
The standoff came as large parts of Turkey were hit by a massive power outage.
More
than 40 provinces as well as metro lines and traffic lights are
reported to have been affected by the blackout, which happened at 10:36
a.m. local time Tuesday.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that all possible causes were being investigated, including terrorism, Anadolu reported.
Energy
Minister Taner Yildiz said the cause of the outage is unknown, and that
he could not say if a cyberattack was behind it, according to the
agency.
At around 4.30 p.m. local time, Yildiz said about 90% of
power was restored to Istanbul, the country's largest city, Andalou
reported. "Crowded places such as metro stations have been given
electricity and we believe the rest of the country should be fully
powered shortly," he said, according to the agency.
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