At least two people were killed in a car bombing at a court in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Wednesday, before police killed two attackers in a shootout, the city's governor said.
The two victims were a police officer and a legal worker at the court, Governor Erol Ayyildiz said at the scene. At least six more people were injured in the attack.
The attackers fled the car packed with explosives when they were stopped at a police checkpoint on their way to the court. They then detonated the bomb during a shootout with police, the governor said.
Police shot dead two of the attackers, who were armed with a rocket launcher, eight hand grenades and two fully automatic firearms.
Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak said police were able to prevent a "very large massacre."
A third suspected attacker was still at large, according to state-run Anadolu news agency.
Turkish authorities imposed a ban on reporting on the incident, a Dogan news agency reporter told broadcaster CNN Turk.
The governor said initial findings indicated that the attack was carried out by the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has largely targeted state officials.
Turkey has been hit by a wave of attacks by militant Kurdish groups since peace talks and a ceasefire between the state and the Kurdish militia collapsed last year.
Kurds make up about 15 per cent of Turkey's population and often denounce what they see as systemic discrimination by the state. The conflict is more than three decades old.
Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city after Istanbul and Ankara, has largely been spared from an escalation of violence in the country since mid-2015.
The attack comes after a wave of attacks in Turkey over the past week that have left more than 100 people dead.
Authorities are engaged in a manhunt for the attacker responsible for a shooting in Istanbul in which 39 people celebrating New Year's Eve were killed. That attack was later claimed by the Daesh extremist group.
On Wednesday the Turkish government decided to extend until April 19 the national state of emergency which had been called after an attempted coup in July.
By Can Merey
