Istanbul police station attacked by female assailants

Police shoot dead two women who attacked a police station with gunfire and a hand grenade, state media reports.

Police returned fire, reportedly injuring one of the women, before tracking them to a nearby building

Police in Istanbul have shot and killed two women who had earlier attacked police with gunfire and a hand grenade, Turkey's state-run news agency reported.  The women had escaped the scene in a vehicle and hid inside a building a short distance from the police station. Police then surrounded the building and launched an operation to apprehend them.

There was no immediate responsibility claim for Thursday's attack on the riot police station in Istanbul's Bayrampasa district. The state-run Anadolu Agency, without citing a source, said the women were identified as members of the banned far-left group, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front, or DHKP-C.

The motive of the attack was not immediately known. Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from southern Turkey, said it was the latest in a series of attacks that have been rocking Istanbul and Ankara in recent months. 

Last month, 29 people were killed in a car bombing that targeted a military convoy in Ankara, which was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), who have been linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In 2015, there were four deadly bomb attacks blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, including the deadliest in Turkey's modern history that killed 103 people in Ankara in October.