Four people died when a man and a woman opened fire in a coffee house in the eastern city of Elazig, a Turkish nationalist stronghold. The couple were then shot dead by police.

In a separate attack, rebels reportedly shot dead a policemen on guard outside a brothel in the eastern city of Van. A second officer was wounded.

It was the first major violence in Turkey since Ocalan was sentenced to hang on Tuesday for leading a 15-year armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in which 30,000 people have died.

Protest

The Elazig coffee house killings sparked a major protest in the city centre after Muslim Friday prayers.

Some 5,000 people joined the march. Many carried pictures of the victims and chanted "Hang Ocalan" as riot police looked on.

"The [rebels] should all come and surrender otherwise they will end up like this," provincial governor Lutfullah Bilgin told reporters as he pointed to the body of one of the rebels.

Istanbul bomb

The Turkish news agency Anatolia also reported four soldiers and 22 Kurds had been killed in clashes in the southeast of the country.

Many Turks are keen to see the sentence carried out

And in Istanbul, a bomb explosion injured three people.

Police have detained 10 alleged Kurdish militants in the city on suspicion of planning similar attacks.

Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have threatened to spread guerrilla violence throughout Turkey in revenge for the death sentence.

Firebombings in German

In Germany, half a dozen Turkish establishments were firebombed on Friday in another burst of violence following Ocalan's conviction.

Attacks were launched on cultural centres, a mosque, a cafe, and other premises in North Rhine-Westphalia state, which is home to a large population of Turks. No one was hurt.

The political wing of Ocalan's movement in Europe, the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan, condemned the firebombings.

"These are acts of carried by provocative circles that aim to blacken the innocent and legitimate demands of our people," it said.

Tensions between Germany's 500,000 Kurds and 1.5 million Turks have grown since Ocalan's arrest in February.

The head of the Turkish community in Germany has urged Ankara to commute the death sentence against Ocalan and promote reconciliation.

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