Turkish police secure the area after a shooting incident near the entrance to Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on Wednesday. Turkish police detained two suspects with automatic weapons after a shooting near the entrance to Dolmabahce Palace, popular with tourists.

AFP/Istanbul

Two militants on Wednesday launched an attack with guns and explosives on the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, one of Turkey's main tourist attractions which also houses offices of the prime minister, the Istanbul authorities said in a statement.

Initial reports had said gunfire and an explosion was heard outside the palace, which was crowded with tourists at the height of the summer season.

"Members of the terrorist organisation launched an attack with weapons and hand grenades," the Istanbul governor's office said in a statement.

It added that the suspects had targeted the police who stand on ceremonial guard outside the Ottoman-era palace during the day.

The two attackers - carrying two hand grenades, an automatic rifle, a gun and other ammunition - were caught by police, the statement said, adding that there were no fatalities.

Security sources speaking to the state-run Anatolia news agency however said that a policeman was lightly injured in the attack.

Suspects caught

Private NTV television earlier said that the suspects had been caught in the vicinity of the German consulate.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Anatolia said that the suspects were members of the radical left wing Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C).

The DHKP-C claimed a similar attack on the Dolmabahce Palace on January 1 where two grenades were hurled at the guards which failed to explode.

The militants were also behind an attack earlier this month on ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) headquarters in Istanbul, Anatolia said.

Police were hunting for at least one more suspect, Anatolia said.

Dolmabahce - one of the last great palaces of the Ottoman Empire and also where the founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, died in 1938 - is one of Istanbul's major tourist attractions.

Part of the palace is open to the public but another wing hosts reception rooms and offices of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The incident came during growing tensions in Turkey as the government wages an unprecedented "anti-terror" offensive against jihadists and Kurdish militants.

It followed the overnight death of a 17-year-old boy during clashes in Istanbul between police and a group allied to the PKK.

So far, Turkey's operation has focused largely on the Kurdish rebels, who have responded by tearing up a 2013 ceasefire and waging a bloody campaign against the security forces.

Eight Turkish soldiers killed in deadliest PKK attack

Eight Turkish soldiers were killed on Wednesday in the deadliest attack by Kurdish militants since the government began an anti-terror offensive last month, as the country battles its most serious security and political crises in years.

Turkey is meanwhile still without a permanent government after inconclusive June 7 elections and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country was now "swiftly" heading to snap polls.

The political and security instability has unnerved investors, with the embattled Turkish lira again plunging to new lows against the dollar on another bruising day.

The eight soldiers were killed by remote-controlled explosive device laid by militants on a road in the Silvan district of the province of Siirt, the army said.

The army blamed the "Separatist Terror Organisation", its customary phrase for the PKK which it never refers to by name.