Turkey detains leftists after bloodshed

Turkish authorities yesterday rounded up over 30 suspected members of the radical leftist group behind a bloody hostage standoff that left a top Istanbul prosecutor dead and shocked the country.

Funeral ceremonies were being held for prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who had been investigating the politically-sensitive case of a teenager who died of injuries inflicted by police during anti-government protests in 2013.

Police late on Tuesday launched an operation to free Kiraz after an hours-long standoff with his captors but the official, who had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest, died shortly after arriving at hospital.

It was not clear from where the shots that killed him were fired.

Both his captors, two men in their 20s affiliated to the outlawed Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), were killed in the police operation.

Turkish authorities yesterday detained 22 suspected members of the group in the southern city of Antalya after receiving a tip-off they were planning further attacks, the Dogan news agency reported.

Police in the western city of Izmir also detained 5 suspected DHKP-C members, seizing documents, digital recordings, banned magazines and 30 bullets. Five more people were also detained in Eskisehir, reports said.

The DHKP-C is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States and has carried out a string of attacks in Turkey in the past.

Turkish police also arrested an armed man who stormed an office of the ruling party in an Istanbul district but the incident was not believed to be related.

A ceremony to remember Kiraz was held at the Istanbul Caglayan Palace of Justice where he worked and the hostage drama unfolded.