An appeals court in Turkey has overturned death sentences against 33 Islamists convicted of killing liberal Muslims in 1993, saying they had to be re-sentenced on technical grounds.

The defendants had been on trial for killing 37 people in the central town of Sivas in an arson attack on their hotel as they were holding a conference.

Large crowds had gathered outside the hotel, chanting slogans of a radical islamic group and preventing firefighters from getting to the scene.

Turkey has not abolished the death penalty, but no executions have been carried out since 1984.