Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Ankara on Monday (27 October) as Turkey gave a solemn state funeral to its two murdered ambassadors.

Under grey skies, the coffins of the Ambassador to Austria, Danis Tunagil, the Paris Envoy, Ismail Erez and Mr. Erez'z murdered chauffeur, Talip Yener, were carried through the streets on gun carriages with mounted cannons.

There has been scenes of near hysteria at Ankara Airport on Sunday (26 October) when the bodies of Mr. Erez and Mr. Yener were flown home in a French military aircraft.

The chauffeur' wife threw herself at her husband's coffin,screaming, "I cannot live without him". The couple were newlyweds.

The two coffins from Paris were met by a guard of honour, Premier Solomon Demirel and other Cabinet Ministers.

The funeral services for all three men were held in Ankara's biggest mosque as young right-wingers distributed leaflets attacking "the barbarous west" for the killings in Vienna and Paris last week.

Mr. Tunalagil was shot at his desk in the Turkish Embassy in Vienna last Wednesday (22 October). Mr. Erez and Mr. Yenner died on Friday (24 October) when other unidentified gunmen held up their car on a bridge over the Seine in Paris.

It is still not known who killed the three men but speculation in Turkey, fanned by local newspapers, claims that a fanatical pro-Greek group is at work.