29 protestors injured as Turkish authorities beefed up security in Istanbul

29 protestors were injured as the Turkish police used force again when storming into Taksim Square in a bid to disperse thousands of protestors who poured into the center of Istanbul city yesterday evening and early in the morning. The Turkish authorities deployed extra security forces in Istanbul city as new protestors against the policies of the Justice and Development Party, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan are en route to Taksim Square that turned into a gathering point for the protest movement that flared up early this month. Reuters said that Lines of police backed by armored vehicles sealed off Taksim Square in the center of the city as officers stormed the adjoining Gezi Park, the center of more than two weeks of fierce anti-government protests that spread to cities across Turkey. Erdogan had warned earlier that security forces would evacuate the square unless the demonstrators withdrew before a ruling party rally in Istanbul on Sunday. ''If you walk down the streets, you'll come across hundreds of injured people with no one to take care of them, '' one of the protestors said. Panicked protesters fled into an upscale hotel at the back of the park, several of them vomiting, as clouds of tear gas and blasts from what witnesses said were percussion bombs engulfed the park. Thousands of people spilled onto a main avenue leading to Taksim after the raid, ripping up street signs and starting to build barricades, while police fired tear gas into back streets around the square to try to prevent protesters regrouping. Erdogan had repeatedly called protesters "riff-raff" and ''saboteurs'', brushing off their resolve to go ahead with protests until their demands are met. Turkish websites said that TRT's deputy general director, Zeynel Koc had quit his job in protest against the violence of Erdogan's government in dealing with peaceful demonstrators.