Supporters of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) were attacked by enraged residents in Izmir after they displayed flags of separatist Kurdish rebels while riding in a crowded convoy in the city, the report said.

One person, hit in the head with a stone, was hospitalised, while the others had only light injuries, Izmir Governor Cahit Kirac told Anatolia.

Tensions flared when a vehicle from the DTP convoy hit a bystander, prompting the authorities to bring in riot police.

The security forces fired warning shots in the air after a crowd assembled and began stoning the convoy, Anatolia said.

The Aegean port of Izmir is home to a large migrant community from the mainly Kurdish southeast, where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule since 1984.

Ankara has promised the Kurds fresh reforms to expand their freedoms in a bid to erode popular support for the insurgency.

But the initiative sparked tensions last month when eight PKK militants, who came from rare bases in neighbouring Iraq and surrenderred to the authorities in a gesture of good will, were allowed to go free.

The judiciary's unusually lenient treatment of the rebels and the hero's welcome they received in the southeast unleashed demonstrations across Turkey.