Turkish soldiers shot into the air and fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of people, many of them believed to be smugglers, from trying to cross into Turkey from Syria.

Turkish soldiers shot into the air and fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of people, many of them believed to be smugglers, from trying to cross into Turkey from Syria, the Turkish military said on Tuesday.

"A group of 1,500-2,000 people tried to approach the border and threw stones at military patrol vehicles sealing the Turkish border at the town of Ogulpinar in Hatay province in the early hours of Tuesday," the military stated.

"Soldiers dispersed the group by firing tear gas after issuing warnings in Arabic and Turkish," it added said.

It was the second such incident in as many days. The military said around 1,000 people had tried to enter Turkey illegally on Monday and that it had seized some 6,000 liters of diesel from them.