A number of unions, left-wing parties and organizations who took to the streets in Istanbul today to celebrate 1 May have been subjected to brutal police violence across the city. Many people, including party and union executives, have been injured and dozens of others taken into custody as a result of the severe police intervention.

Police attack on groups of workers in Şişli started early in the morning and continued till the afternoon.

Police first attacked thousands of people who were marching towards Taksim Square, the main point of celebrations, blockaded by police forces since early morning , under the leadership of Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DİSK). Clashes between police and demonstrators began as groups dispersed in side streets and responded to police with stones and molotov cocktails. The majority of the group went back to DISK central office where police continued to attack demonstrators with intense tear gas that severely affected the people around. Many wounded, including Enerji-Sen Union President Ali Duman, were rushed to the hospital for urgent treatment. Some groups who entered the hospital's garden because of police intervention also suffered attacks here by police teams.

Clashes also broke out in Dolapdere where groups were in the same way attacked by police while moving towards Taksim Square. Following the severe intervention, groups dispersed around in Tarlabaşı and put up barricades on side streets.

A number of political parties and trade union organizations gathered in Beşiktaş under the leadership of KESK. Police intervention on the groups here also started at early morning hours.

Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy chair Gürsel Tekin and MP Ercan Karakaş also suffered from the very intense tear gas thrown by police teams deployed in Beşiktaş.

A group, calling themselves "anti-capitalist Muslims", also suffered police intervention as they started their march from Fatih Mosque to Taksim Square.

In a statement on the brutal police attack on workers, Contemporary Lawyers Association, ÇHD, said that two people, Serdal Gül and Oran Meşe, have been taken to hospital for brain surgery after they were hit on the head by gas canister fired by police. ÇHD said one other, Zeynel Sabaz, who was also hit on the head with a gas canister, is facing risk of cerebral hemorrhage. ÇHD said four other people who also suffered injuries during the police attack are receiving treatment at hospitals.

According to ÇHD, police has detained 16 people around Şişli, three in Beşiktaş, 21 in Tarlabaşı, and "nine people who were subjected to police attack in a house in Tarlabaşı might also have been taken into custody".

40 thousand people have been deployed across Istanbul today after the Interior Ministry denied permission for celebrations for the May Day to take place in the central İstanbul square of Taksim because of the renovation work going on in the area.