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Published: 8:54AM Tuesday April 07, 2015 Source: AP

Istanbul Security Chief Selami Altinok, center-right, and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Orhan Kapici speak to the media outside the main courthouse in Istanbul, Turkey. - Source: AP

Turkey today blocked access to social networking sites, including Twitter and YouTube, over photos showing a militant pointing a gun at a prosecutor who died last week in a failed hostage rescue operation.

Access to Twitter was restored several hours later.

A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a Turkish prosecutor had ordered Internet providers to block the sites.

The request stemmed from postings of photos that showed militant Marxists pointing a gun at the prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who died in a shootout between police and the Marxists who were holding him hostage.

Government officials have blasted Turkish media for posting the images, which they have called anti-government propaganda. Kiraz, was shot in the head during the standoff and died in a hospital soon after.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said access was blocked because Twitter and YouTube didn't remove images of the prosecutor despite an official notification.

It said the Internet Providers notified Twitter and YouTube, but video, photographs and audio continued to be posted on these sites. The Turkish telecommunications authority wouldn't immediately comment.

A government official said Turkey decided to lift the ban on Twitter in the late afternoon after the company agreed to remove all images of the prosecutor and telecoms authorities verified that it had done so.

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Turkey blocks social media over hostage death photo