Istanbul police use tear gas, water cannons on May Day protesters

Turkish police clashed with May Day protesters early Thursday, with tear gas and water cannons used to disperse thousands who had gathered on Istanbul’s streets.

Demonstrators had tried to congregate in Taksim Square, the epicentre of long-running protests last year against the government, but were prevented from doing so by police. The crowds reportedly disobeyed several warnings to disperse and tried to breach barricades put up around the square, before hundreds of police moved in.

According to AFP, smoke quickly started rising above the district, which is home to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office. A main opposition party MP was reportedly tear-gassed by police after leading a sit-down protest in Besiktas, close to Taksim Square where demonstrators have been banned from rallying this year, Turkish news agency Anadoulu reported.

Stones, fireworks and ball bearings were also reportedly thrown at police in Okmeydani in Istanbul’s European side where protestors chanted the name of Berkin Elvan, an Istanbul teenager fatally injured by a police tear-gas canister fired during anti-government protests last year.

On the city’s Asian side meanwhile, a bomb warning was issued to a rally point in Kadikoy, but a police search revealed no device.

Almost 40,000 police officers as well as dozens of water cannon trucks and armoured vehicles were reportedly deployed throughout Istanbul, with roughly half that number drafted into the centre to cordon off all the avenues, streets and alleys around the square.

 Authorities announced that they would provide 300 free buses to take people to an "approved" protest site at Yenikapi, several miles from Taksim Square. The Istanbul governorate has allocated two such sites for the rallies.

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Erdogan warned protesters last week to "give up hopes" of meeting on Taksim, while Istanbul Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said on Wednesday that the ban was based on intelligence reports indicating "illegal terrorist groups" were planning unrest at Taksim.

Activists and leftist unions, however, have long vowed to ignore the ban.

Despite earlier fears that the TURK-IS labour confederation would not be allowed to access the square, the union was granted permission to lay wreaths in memory of 34 people killed during a 1977 May Day protest, when unknown demonstrators fired shots into the air, sparking panic.

The bulk of the protests though were held elsewhere with union organised another May Day rally in Istanbul, in Kadikoy Square.

Public transport was paralysed in the sprawling city of more than 13 million as the authorities blocked roads, cancelled ferry services and closed metro stations in a bid to cope with two crowds of demonstrators on either side of the Bosphorus.

Violent protests between police and protesters on May Day last year, triggered after a similar ban, were followed weeks later by protests that snowballed into one of the biggest challenges to Erdogan's 11-year rule.

Unions had tried to march on the site, but were prevented from doing so allegedly because of construction works that were under way.