Two people were early Tuesday morning involved in a shootout with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) security personnel around its high-security facility at Byalalu near Bangalore.

The two men, who were roaming around the area, fired at the security personnel on being questioned forcing the security forces to return fire, but the duo escaped.

"Two people were seen moving in a suspicious manner outside our centre," ISRO spokesman S Satish told reporters. "The police immediately challenged them, and they opened fire in retaliation. The shootout continued for some time before the two men fled." "The police are investigating. It is up to them to see whether it was a terror attack," he added.

The duo fired at them with a small pistol, after which the security guards retaliated. The incident occurred between 3.30am and 4.00am, sources said.

The home ministry sees ISRO buildings as a high priority target for terrorists, and has beefed up security around them after warnings of possible attacks.

A top CISF official said an ISRO security man spotted the two keeping a close watch on the installation and challenged them but the duo fired two rounds at him. He retaliated and fired two rounds, he said.

"The security man then changed position and fired some more rounds. Even before reinforcements could arrive, the two fled," the official said.

The Inspector General of Police (central range) and DIG of CISF, which is in charge of security at airports and vital installations, visited the area.

The Indian Deep Space Network, commissioned in 2008 at Byalalu village near Bangalore, is the ground segment for providing deep space support for India's first Lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1.

The technical facilities in IDSN include a 32-metre Deep Space Antenna, an 18-metre Antenna Terminal, an 11-metre Antenna Terminal, Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) and a Technical Services complex.

The IDSN is the first of its kind project in India that provides ISRO the capability to handle deep space missions and also provides cross support to other deep space missions of external space agencies because of its inter-operable features and sophisticated capabilities.

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