Coup attempt plunges Turkey into chaos

A defiant Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Saturday morning to crush an attempted coup, as the Turkish president launched a series of attacks and arrests on the breakaway military faction he accused of seeking to overthrow his government.

"The government is in control," Mr Erdogan told a crowd of supporters in Istanbul at 6.30am local time. As broadcasters showed soldiers surrendering on a bridge across the Bosphorus, he said: "My people took those tanks back . . . We are not going to compromise."

At least 90 people were killed in the capital Ankara overnight, and more than 1,500 members of the military and security forces, suspected of planning and carrying out the attempted coup, were arrested in the early hours of Saturday, a Turkish official said. Of these, 250 were seized at the Gendarmerie HQ in Ankara. Five generals and 29 colonels were also removed from their posts.

The president and his backers appeared to have regained a semblance of control over loyal factions of the military and the police early on Saturday, and regained access to the state-run television and radio channels.

The government deployed fighter jets in its effort to take out tanks, and regain control of the skies. F16s launched air strikes at tanks positioned outside the Presidential palace in Ankara, a Turkish official said, and downed a military helicopter involved in an attack against Turksat, which provides television and communication signals. Fifteen tanks from another city were deployed by Mr Erdogan's government.

Mr Erdogan flew back from holiday to Istanbul in the early hours of Saturday, saying: "We are in charge and we will continue exercising our powers until the end. We will not abandon our country to these invaders."