Police crackdown in Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he carried out his "duty" by deploying riot police who evicted thousands of activists behind Istanbul's Gezi Park.

In a thunderous speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters in western Istanbul, Erdogan also railed against foreign media coverage of the protests.

The Turkish union confederations DISK and KESK have called a one-day nationwide strike on Monday.

One protester in the Turkish city if Istanbul managed to wedge himself between the windscreen and bonnet of a water cannon truck.

Out of the reach of the stream of pressurised water, he was able to unfurl a Turkish flag directly in front of where the drivers were sitting.

There have been running skirmishes between police and protesters in Istanbul's Taksim Square and the surrounding area, despite a plea by the city's governor for demonstrators to stay away.

Governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said the protesters "can use their rights to protest later in areas arranged for public gatherings".

The Governor of Istanbul has said he will not allow planned protests in Taksim Square today.

Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul pushed protesters out of Taksim Square this morning, removing the roadblocks put up in the last two weeks.

Police used tear gas to disperse protesters in Istanbul early this morning, hours after a protest camp was cleared from a park in the Turkish city.

Police in riot gear also dismantled barricades which had been put up, including one on a street leading to Taksim Square - which has been at the heart of the recent unrest.

A hotel was hit by tear-gas canisters during the police operation, forcing guests and protesters sheltering inside the hotel to rush out into the street, the Associated Press reported.

Workers have moved into Istanbul's Taksim Square to clear sections of the adjoining "tent city" that had been created by anti-government protesters.

With police in riot gear standing by, parts of temporary shelters were bulldozed down and loaded into trucks to be taken away.

After telling protesters to leave Gezi Park, riot police swarmed into Taksim Square firing water cannons and tear gas at them.

Turkey's trade union confederation KESK has called a general strike for Monday after a police raid on a protester camp in Istanbul's Gezi Park this evening.

Police wielding tear gas and water cannon are locked in an ongoing struggle with anti-government demonstrators for control of the park and adjoining Taksim Square.

Police are using water cannon and tear gas against protesters in Istanbul's Taksim Square and adjoining Gezi Park.

The move comes just hours after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a rally in Ankara: "Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it".