6 people were injured, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. (Representational))
Turkish police on Tuesday shot dead a man and a woman belonging to a leftist "terrorist" organisation who attacked a security checkpoint outside Istanbul's main courthouse, injuring six people, officials said.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the assailants were members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) -- a fringe leftist group that has staged periodic attacks in Turkey since the 1980s.
The group issued no initial claim of responsibility.
"While the terrorists who attempted to attack were neutralised, six people, including three police officers and three citizens, were injured," Yerlikaya said in a social media statement.
Turkey has begun to emerge from a violent spell that started a decade ago when it was hit by repeated bombings and other attacks linked to jihadist fighters and Kurdish operatives.
Although those attacks have largely died down, both Istanbul and the capital Ankara remain on high alert.
Last month, one man was shot dead by two gunmen who opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul. The attack was claimed by Islamic State group jihadists.
In October, two assailants injured two policemen in an attack on the government district in the capital Ankara that was claimed by Kurdish operatives.
Turkey responded by stepping up air strikes against Kurdish targets in Syria and Iraq.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)