Terror in Turkey as two armed women are shot dead in police siege after opening fire in the street then barricading themselves inside government building in Istanbul

This is the dramatic moment two women opened fire and threw grenades on the streets of Istanbul before being shot dead in a police siege. 

The attackers targeted a riot police bus with what appeared to be a machine gun and hurled explosives as it drove towards a station in the Bayrampasa district of the city.

Police returned fire, injuring one of the militants, before tracking them to a nearby government building after they escaped the scene in a vehicle.

Scroll down for videos 

Caught on camera: This is the dramatic moment two women open fire with what appears to be a machine gun and throw a grenade at a police bus in Istanbul in the latest terror attack to rock the Turkish city

Terror on the streets: Police returned fire, injuring one woman, before tracking them to a building where they barricaded themselves in

Special forces units were sent to the area and residents were evacuated as officers prepared to carry out an operation after the women fled to a nearby government building

Residents were evacuated from the area as security forces prepared to carry out a kill or capture operation.

Footage on Turkish television stations showed the street cordoned off as armed plainclothes police in bullet-proof vests emerged from the police station. 

Officers then launched an assault on the building and shot the pair dead after the women ignored calls for them to surrender. 

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. 

Attacks on security forces have increased as violence flares in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast, where a ceasefire between Kurdistan Workers' Party militants and the state collapsed last July

The attackers targeted a riot police van as it drove towards the station in the Bayrampasa district of Istanbul

The women later escaped the scene in a vehicle and hid inside a building a short distance from the station 

Sahin said police were trying to identify the assailants and possible accomplices.

Meanwhile, distraught parents made frantic attempts to contact their children after their school was cordoned off during the police operation. 

The women were named as Cigdem Yaksi and Berna Yilmaz, both members of the radical leftist group, The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

The militant group later claimed responsibility for the attack, issuing a statement saying: 'Greetings to you, our two brave female liberation fighters who have taken the people's liberation fight on their shoulders.' 

It has repeatedly staged similar attacks on police stations, largely in Istanbul suburbs, in the past.

Siege: Security forces officers open fire during an operation against the two attackers. Police shot and killed the two women who had hidden inside a building after they ignored calls for the to surrender

Police are trying to identify the assailants and possible accomplices behind the attack in the Turkish city

Security officers take up positions during a siege on a building where the female terrorists were holed up

Attacks on the security forces have increased as violence flares in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast, where a ceasefire between Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and the state collapsed last July. 

The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched a separatist armed rebellion against Turkey more than three decades ago. 

More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have since been killed.

Turkey has also become a target for ISIS, who are blamed for three suicide bombings. 

Kill or capture: Special forces officers conduct a search operation following an attack at the entrance to a police station in the Istanbul suburb of Bayrampasa by two women who fled to a nearby government building

Streets were cordoned off as armed police in bullet-proof vests emerged from the police station

Officers launched an assault on the building and shot the pair dead after the women ignored calls to surrender

Special forces officers conduct a search operation in nearby streets in the Istanbul suburb of Bayrampasa

Special forces officers cordon off a nearby street following an attack by two women brandishing a machine gun and grenade at the entrance to a police station in the Istanbul suburb of Bayrampasa on Thursday

Police remove a taxi during the operation against two women who opened fire on the streets of Istanbul

One took place last year in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border, another in the capital, Ankara, and one in Istanbul in January. 

Those attacks killed more than 140 people. 

The radical leftist group DHKP-C has repeatedly staged similar attacks on police stations, largely in Istanbul suburbs.

A suicide car bombing targeted military buses in Ankara killed 29 people last month. 

The government said that attack was carried out by a member of YPG, the Syrian Kurdish militia, with help from PKK militants. 

Parents try to contact their children in a cordoned-off school after residents were evacuated as special units moved into the area to prepare for a kill or capture operation in the Istanbul suburb of Bayrampasa

Parents vent their anger at a police officer after being held back from their children's school during a search operation following an attack at the entrance to a police station in the Istanbul suburb of Bayrampasa, Turkey