REPORT: Turkish PM says to go ahead with Istanbul plans despite protest

        
A police officer has fallen to his death while trying to subdue a protest in southern Turkey, bringing the death toll to three in a week of protests.                

Gov. Huseyin Avni Cos said the officer died in a hospital after falling into an underpass still under construction in Adana, on the Mediterranean coast. He was trying to break up protests there the previous night.         

However, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday his government would go ahead with controversial plans to overhaul a small park in central Istanbul, despite mass protests against the redevelopment of the square.    

Speaking to reporters in Tunis after a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Erdogan said groups accused of responsibility for previous violent attacks were manipulating what had started as an environmental protest and that a number of foreigners had been arrested.

Two protesters were reported killed in protests that have erupted in some 70 cities, and one person is on life support in a hospital in Ankara. The Turkish Human Rights Foundation said some 4,300 people have been hurt or sought medical care for the effects of tear gas.                 

The government said dozens of police officers have been injured.               


AP/REUTERS


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