Turkey detains 2 militants trying to enter parliament

ANKARA, Turkey – Police in Turkey have detained two suspected left-wing militants who tried to enter the country’s parliament with sharp objects and a hoax explosive device, officials said Wednesday.

Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director, said in a tweet that the suspects were identified as members of the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, also known as DHKP-C.

He called their attempt a “terrorist act against the will and the peace of the nation.”

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the suspects — a woman and a man — arrived at the parliament building on Tuesday and tried to take a security official hostage before they were subdued.

The suspects were carrying sharp objects and an item that was made to look like a bomb, Anadolu reported.

The DHKP-C is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union.

The group is responsible for a string of assassinations and bombings in Turkey, including a 2013 suicide bomb attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara.

Altun said their “internal and external connections will be revealed and accounted for.”