Kurdish demonstrators clash with Turkish police

Ankara: Turkish television footage shows hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators throwing stones at police and soldiers preventing around 3,000 people from travelling to the village of imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan to mark his 60th birthday.

News agency footage shows hundreds of police and soldiers, holding riot shields, taking positions on hilltops and blocking a road near the town of Halfeti, close to Ocalan's village of Omerli.

Police and military authorities have urged calm through loudspeakers and police have used water canons and fired tear gas canisters to disperse the crowds, footage shows.

Ocalan is serving a life sentence for leading a separatist war for autonomy in Turkey's southeast.