Tear gas and water cannons used against crowds protesting Government seizure of Turkey's largest newspaper

Turkish police fired tear gas and plastic pellets into a crowd of 2,000 protesters gathered outside the country's biggest newspaper after the authorities seized control of it.

Police raided the offices of the Zaman at
midnight, following a Government decision to take over the management of the media group.

A court on Friday appointed an administrator to run the newspaper, and its the English- language edition Today's Zaman, following a request by a state prosecutor investigating the group's links to US-based muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of working together with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to
topple the Turkish government.

Footage taken by staff at the newspaper shows police firing tear gas and using water cannons to disperse crowds outside Zaman offices, who had gathered to prevent the take over, before forcibly breaking down the building's frontdoor.