Pitched battles on the streets of Istanbul.<br/> <br />Turkish police used what they could to shut down May Day protesters from defying Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim square.<br/> <br />The Istanbul governor's office said it had received advanced information that "illegal terror organizations and their extensions" would resort to violence to stoke unrest.<br/> <br />But security measures failed to deter thousands from trying to march, with pockets of protesters playing cat and mouse with police in tear gas-shrouded side streets.<br/> <br />Some 40 people were hospitalized and around 160 detained<br/> <br />Erdogan has in the past dismissed protesters as "riff-raff" and "terrorists."<br/> <br />But he has faced criticism from the European Union which Turkey aspires to join, over restrictions on freedom of speech including a two-week ban on Twitter and last summer's police crackdown on demonstrations.
