Riot police charge protesters at IMF, World Bank meet

Turkish riot police on Tuesday used tear gas and water canons to break up a rally by 2 000 anti-International Monetary Fund (IMF) protesters in Istanbul and detained about 50 people, officials said.

Police charged the crowd in Taksim square, in Istanbul’s European quarter, when they tried to march on a convention centre where the IMF and World Bank are holding their annual meeting, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.

The mainly student protesters, some of whom threw Molotov cocktails, rapidly evacuated the square, fleeing into sidestreets with police on their heels.

Some set up barricades with rubbish bins and shopping trolleys while others used slings to pelt police with stones.

A group of 300 demonstrators were seen breaking the windows of four banks and a supermarket, as passers-by took refuge in two nearby hospitals.

At least one police officer fired warning shots into the air to disperse the crowd, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said about 50 protesters were detained, adding that no one was injured.

He blamed the unrest on about 100 people “from illegal groups”, who, he said, threw petrol bombs, stones and sticks on the security forces.

“We fully respect freedom of expression but…there were violent groups who tried to force their way into the convention area and attacked the police ... This cannot be tolerated,” Anatolia quoted Guler as saying.—AFP