A man was shot and seriously wounded on Thursday as Turkish police clashed with protesters throwing petrol bombs and stones in the Istanbul district of Okmeydani, the city's governor and local witnesses said.
The incident occurred nearly one year to the day after protests in central Istanbul triggered a summer of nationwide anti-government demonstrations that challenged the decade-long rule of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Thursday's disturbances began when a group of some 10-15 people began chanting slogans about a youth who had died in previous clashes with police and about a mine disaster last week in which 301 people died, Dogan news agency said.
Photographs showing the man lying with a large pool of blood around his head were published by Turkish news websites and on social media. The reports widely identified him as Ugur Kurt, 30, who worked for the local council.
The provincial governor said that police had come under petrol bomb attack and that a weapon had been fired, pledging an investigation into the incident.
"After the clash there was one youth wounded by a gun," Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told reporters. "We know he is badly wounded but our hospital is giving all the necessary treatment. God willing he will be saved."
At the time of the shooting, police had been firing tear gas and water cannon at protesters. Two police officers were hurt as a petrol bomb struck their armored vehicle and set it alight, video footage showed.
Separate footage showed an officer firing a pistol into the air beside an armored vehicle as youths with red scarves covering their faces hurled petrol bombs.
The wounded man had been attending a funeral nearby in a cemevi, a place of worship of Turkey's Alevi minority. He had no apparent connection to the protest. One photo showed him lying within the cemevi complex with tear gas billowing nearby.
The working class district of Okmeydani, near the center of Istanbul, often draws protests, largely by left-wing activists.
After the shooting, police intervened again as word spread of the incident. They fired water cannon and tear gas at a crowd of around 100 people who gathered in Okmeydani, chanting "murderer police" and "police get out of the neighborhood".
A 15-year-old boy, Berkin Elvan, died in March after nine months in a coma after sustaining a head wound during an anti-government protest in Okmeydani. Thousands clashed with police in Istanbul when he was buried.
REUTERS