Turkish police fire rubber bullets, tear gas during Istanbul City Hall protest

ISTANBUL: Turkish riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas as demonstrators protested near Istanbul City Hall over the arrest of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, AFP correspondents at the scene said.

As a handful of demonstrators sought to head off towards the central Taksim Square, scuffles broke out with police, who fired rubber bullets, said one correspondent who saw the weapons, heard them discharged and detected the distinctive smell of rubber.

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A second correspondent at the scene said police had “used rubber bullets and a lot of tear gas”.

Taksim Square, the iconic location of many of Turkey’s biggest protests, has been barricaded off since Imamoglu was arrested early on Wednesday, with police on high alert to prevent any demonstrations there.

Addressing the police from a stage near City Hall, opposition leader Ozgur Ozel, who heads the CHP party, warned them not to provoke the protesters by firing tear gas or rubber bullets.

“If that happens, the Istanbul police will be held accountable,” he warned.

“Who are you to fire gas at the hope of Turkey?”

“Tayyip, resign!” yelled the crowd of several thousand people, many of them university students, in a pointed message to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It was the second night that thousands of demonstrators had defied a protest ban to gather outside City Hall to express their anger at the mayor’s shock arrest as part of a graft and terror investigation.

“Mayor Ekrem is not involved in corruption, nor terror. He’s not a thief nor a terrorist,” Ozel said, warning Erdogan that the wave of protest would not stop.

“Hey Erdogan: we will be on the streets from now on. Be afraid of us, the streets are ours,” he warned.

“I didn’t fill this square and these streets. You did. They are full because of you,” he said.

“We will not give up this fight before we free Imamoglu and the other detained mayors of Istanbul” districts, who also were arrested on Wednesday.

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In several areas of the city, including the upmarket Nisantasi neighbourhood, residents could be heard banging pots and pans in protest, with cars honking their horns in solidarity with the mayor, another AFP correspondent said.