Ankara, April 1 (IANS): The Turkish police on Wednesday detained 22 suspects after the hostage siege in an Istanbul courthouse that left a prosecutor dead, media reported.

Police in Turkey's southern Antalya province launched an operation on Tuesday to free prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz who was taken hostage in the courthouse, Xinhua news agency reported citing private Dogan news service. It added that the police detained 22 members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) after Kiraz died of gunshot wounds.

The detained suspects are mostly students of Akdeniz University, the report said.

Hakan Evcin, a lawyer affiliated with the detainees, said that the group was planning only to make a statement on Wednesday.

The DHKP-C, a far left group, has been listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the US.

Kiraz was the prosecutor of a 14-year-old boy, Berkin Elvan, who was shot by police in anti-government protests in June 2013. Elvan died in March 2014 after over 200 days in coma.