Turkish riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at demonstrators after police evicted activists from an Istanbul park. Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan rallied tens of thousands of his supporters in Istanbul.

Erdogan held his Istanbul rally Sunday 10 kilometers (six miles) from Gezi Park which protesters had occupied as part of a two-week protest to prevent its redevelopment.

In a much larger park buses unloaded scores of supporters of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for a rally billed as a show of strength in response to the unrest.

Hundreds of riot police continued to fire tear gas and jets of water during the day at groups of demonstrators who had been evicted from Gezi Park overnight.

Earlier, police in uniform and plainclothes sealed off Istanbul's central Taksim Square and adjacent Gezi Park, where crews worked through the night to clear away all traces of the protesters' camp.