Three shot dead in Istanbul police raid

A suspected left-wing extremist was among three people killed yesterday during a six-hour shoot-out at his Istanbul apartment, Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay said.

A police officer and a civilian were also dead following the drama in the heart of the Asian side of the Turkish metropolis that began when police launched an early-morning raid on the flat.

The extremist - an alleged leader of an underground group known as the Revolutionary Headquarters - was alone in the premises with a large stockpile of weapons and explosive devices.

Resisting arrest, he exchanged gunfire with police who surrounded the building in Bostanci, a busy residential neighbourhood. Specialised police units rushed to the scene, and a number of explosions were heard.

The civilian who died was outside the security perimeter when he was hit in the head by a stray bullet, the interior minister said. Slightly injured was a television cameraman, hit by a ricochet on the ear.

The raid was part of a wider police operation aimed at foiling attacks by left-wing extremists and the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, Istanbul governor Muammer Gueler said. By mid-day yesterday, around 40 people had been arrested in Istanbul, he said.

Elsewhere in Turkey, about 50 people - including suspected members of the Turkish branch of Al-Qaeda - were arrested in what appeared to be simultaneous raids aimed at underground Islamist groups, the Anatolia news agency reported.