Turkish students protest against police violence after death of teenager

Turkish police on Tuesday fired tear gas at protesters who rallied in several cities in Turkey after the death of a teenager who was wounded during mass anti- government protests last year.

Mass protests were seen in Main Square of Ankara, in the largest city of Istanbul and in various universities in the country following the death of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who had been in coma for 269 days due to a head injury by a tear gas canister during the Gezi Park protests in last June.

In the capital Ankara, hundreds of students held demonstration in the campus of Ankara's Middle Eastern Technical University and intended to gather in the town square. They also blocked a main road in the capital.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters, and some students were beaten by the police with batons, local media reported.

Berkin Elvan was going to buy bread when he was shot in the head by riot police in Okmeydan district of Istanbul on June 16, 2013 and he had been in intensive care unit in hospital for 269 days.

His death raised the toll from the Gezi Park protests to eight, including a police officer.

The protests broke out as a peaceful demonstration on May 30 against a redevelopment plan of Istanbul's Gezi Park. However, it then spread into a nationwide wave of demonstration against the central government.