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A far-left Turkish terror group has taken an Istanbul prosecutor hostage and are threatening to kill him if police officers being investigated over the death of a teenager do not confess.

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) published a picture of Mehmet Selim Kiraz with a gun to his head and said it would kill him in three hours unless its demands were met.

The deadline has now passed, but Istanbul Police Chief Altınok Selami told reporters that negotiators are still talking to the hostage-takers.

Witnesses said they heard gunshots as the two men entered the building.

"We were on the sixth floor. A black-haired man wearing a suit entered the prosecutor's room and fired a gun three times," Mehmet Hasan Kaplan, who works in the building, said.

(Image: Getty Images)

He added that the attackers also claimed to have explosives.

The prosecutor is leading an investigation into the death last March of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who died after nine months in a coma from a head wound sustained in anti-government protests.

The DHKP-C said on its website it wanted the police officer it blames for Elvan's death to confess on television and the officers involved to be tried in "people's courts".

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They have also demanded that charges against those who attended protests for Elvan to be dropped.

Television footage showed special forces officers entering the courthouse and officials being escorted out.

"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," the police chief said.

(Image: Getty Images)

"We are trying to resolve the issue without anyone being hurt."

Armed police officers, many wearing flak jackets, surrounded the building and fire engines were positioned outside.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now Turkey's president, sparked fury soon after the teenager's death when he said the boy had been armed and had been "taken up into terrorist organisations".

He also said the protests, in which eight died, were part of a plot to topple his government.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with the current and former interior and justice ministers at the ruling AK Party headquarters in Ankara to discuss the hostage taking, officials in his office said.

Berkin Elvan's father appealed for the prosecutor to be freed.

He told BBC Turkish: "My son is dead but let no-one else die.

"You can't wash blood with blood."

It was also reported that the terror group were publishing photos of a file from the investigation into Berkin Elvan's death.

The President of the Union of Bar Associations of Turkey tweeted:"The hostage-taking is a terrorist act. Our prayers are with our prosecutors."

Turkish news source Hurriet report that Turkish authorities have banned coverage of the incident - the 150th issued in the past four years.

Turkish television stations immediately cut their live coverage.

Other events that fell under a ban were ISIS storming Turkey’s Mosul consulate, corruption investigations into government ministers, and the worst mining disaster in the nation's history.

The United States, European Union and Turkey list the DHKP-C as a terrorist organisation. It was behind a suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy in 2013.

In 2001, two policemen and an Australian tourist died in a DHKP-C attack in central Istanbul.