Three Turkish policemen and three gunmen were killed in an attack on the United States consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, the city's governor said.
Witnesses told Reuters four attackers drove a car up to the high-walled compound situated to the north of Istanbul city centre and overlooking the Bosphorus waterway. Three jumped out as the car halted and began firing at police who approached.
Governor Muammer Guler said one of the police officers died at the scene in a gunbattle lasting several minutes, at a time of day when many Turks go there to apply for visas. Two had died of their wounds at a nearby hospital.
Two other people were also injured.
Turkey and the United States condemned the 11:00 am (9 a.m. British time) attack for which no one has yet claimed responsibility.
"It is enough to say they are terrorists who carried out a dastardly and cowardly attack," U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson told a news conference in Ankara.
"Our countries stand together in the fight against international terrorism. This was an attack on a diplomatic establishment here," Wilson said.
Television images showed four bodies lying on the ground around the police post at the consulate's gates, with paramedics carrying out heart massage on one man. The shirt of another was ripped open. Blood was flowing from the head of a third.
"They (the assailants) were four people. Three of them got out of the car and fired at the police. I saw them dead afterwards lying on the ground and many more dead among the police," Enis Yilmaz, who was going to the consulate to get a visa, told Reuters. He said the fourth man drove off.
One of the dead police officers was working at the consulate, and the two others were traffic officers.
"I was greatly saddened by the martyrdom of our three police officers in a terrorist attack," Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement.
The attack coincides with political tensions in Turkey. The ruling party is in a legal fight to avert closure over charges of anti-secular activities and police are probing a shadowy far-right group suspected of plotting a military coup.
