Turkish police storm courthouse

Former PKK leader Ocalan is serving life in prison

Police have stormed a Turkish courthouse where supporters of the jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan had taken hostages, say reports.

Private Turkish TV station NTV said several judges who were seized had been released and the protesters were in custody.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said the crisis was over.

Ocalan was arrested in 1999 and is now serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison.

Chanting

A correspondent at the courthouse saw police lead away about 20 handcuffed demonstrators.

The protesters had hung banners out of a third-floor window declaring their support for the former Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and had chanted pro-Ocalan slogans.

Some 30,000 people were killed during the PKK insurgency in Kurdish south-east Turkey that began in 1984.

The fighting diminished after Ocalan was seized by Turkish special forces in Kenya in 1999, brought back to Turkey and jailed after a trial for treason.