Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Thursday that police in Istanbul have shot and killed two women who had earlier attacked police with gunfire and a hand grenade.

Security camera footage shows the women firing at a police bus outside a riot police station. They also are seen hurling a hand grenade that failed to explode.

The woman had been cornered in the morning hours after one was injured by officers returning fire, the private Dogan news agency reported. The women fled to a nearby apartment block and were subsequently killed by officers.

Ultra-leftist group claims attack

The militant Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.

It posted this message on an affiliated website Thursday afternoon: "Greetings to you, our two brave female liberation fighters who have taken the people's liberation fight on their shoulders."

Istanbul Governor Vahip Sahin said two police officers were wounded - one by broken glass during the attack on the bus and the other during the operation on the building.

Turkey has been on a high state of alert as violence continues to flare in the southeast between the military and Kurdish militants.

Some 29 people were killed in a car bombing that targeted a military convoy in Ankara last month, which was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a splinter group from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been waging an insurgency for political and cultural rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority since the 1980s.

jar/kms (AFP, Reuters, AP)