by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Istanbul
18 minutes ago
Later gunshots were heard and smoke was seen rising from the building, after reports special forces had entered.
A banned Marxist revolutionary group is said to be behind the incident.
A statement posted online said the prosecutor would be killed if their demands were not met.
City police chief Selami Altinok told reporters that negotiations with the hostage takers were under way.
"We are trying to resolve the issue without anyone being hurt," he said.
The Turkish government has banned live TV coverage of the incident, citing security concerns.
But later witnesses reported hearing gunshots and an explosion at the building, and ambulances were seen going to and from the scene.
There was no immediate comment from officials on the latest developments.
Sukriye Erden, a lawyer negotiating with the hostage takers, told the BBC that they had demanded that the police should announce the names of four members of security services who they said were connected to the death of Berkin Elvan.
Berkin 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.
After nine months in a coma he eventually died in an Istanbul hospital.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now Turkey's president, inflamed passions shortly after the teenager's death when he said the boy had been carrying a slingshot and had been "taken up into terrorist organisations".
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.
Berkin Elvan's father, Sami, appealed for the prosecutor to be freed: "My son is dead but let no-one else die."
"You can't wash blood with blood," he told BBC Turkish.
Turkey's prime minister met the interior minister to try to defuse this latest crisis, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul reports.
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.
18 minutes ago
Armed men have taken hostage the
Turkish prosecutor heading the inquiry into the death of a boy during
anti-government protests in 2013.
Dramatic images have emerged on social media of a gun being held to the head of Mehmet Selim Kiraz at a court house in Istanbul.Later gunshots were heard and smoke was seen rising from the building, after reports special forces had entered.
A banned Marxist revolutionary group is said to be behind the incident.
A statement posted online said the prosecutor would be killed if their demands were not met.
City police chief Selami Altinok told reporters that negotiations with the hostage takers were under way.
"We are trying to resolve the issue without anyone being hurt," he said.
The Turkish government has banned live TV coverage of the incident, citing security concerns.
But later witnesses reported hearing gunshots and an explosion at the building, and ambulances were seen going to and from the scene.
There was no immediate comment from officials on the latest developments.
Sukriye Erden, a lawyer negotiating with the hostage takers, told the BBC that they had demanded that the police should announce the names of four members of security services who they said were connected to the death of Berkin Elvan.
Berkin 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.
After nine months in a coma he eventually died in an Istanbul hospital.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now Turkey's president, inflamed passions shortly after the teenager's death when he said the boy had been carrying a slingshot and had been "taken up into terrorist organisations".
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.
Berkin Elvan's father, Sami, appealed for the prosecutor to be freed: "My son is dead but let no-one else die."
"You can't wash blood with blood," he told BBC Turkish.
Turkey's prime minister met the interior minister to try to defuse this latest crisis, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul reports.
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.
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