ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)<br /> <br />The protesters in the Osmanbey district of Istanbul were among tens of thousands of mourners who marched through the city on Wednesday (March 12) for the funeral of the 15-year-old boy, Berkin Elvan, who died on Tuesday after spending nine months in a coma.<br /> <br />The funeral ceremony was broadcast live on major television news channels, some of which were criticised for their scant coverage of last June's unrest.<br /> <br />Elvan, then aged 14, got caught up in street battles in Istanbul between police and protesters on June 16 while going to buy bread for his family. He became a rallying point for government opponents, who held vigils at the Istanbul hospital where he lay in intensive care from a head trauma believed to have been caused by a police tear gas canister.<br /> <br />His death has sparked the most extensive street protests since last June, with skirmishes on Tuesday in cities including Mersin on the Mediterranean coast, Samsun on the Black Sea
