Anti-NATO protesters hurling paving stones and gasoline bombs clashed with riot police in Istanbul Monday on the first day of a NATO summit, leaving around 30 people injured.

The violence erupted well away from the venue for the 26-nation two-day gathering, which is ringed by a tight security cordon.

Leftist protesters carrying red flags and shouting "Istanbul will be a graveyard for NATO" lobbed rocks and petrol-filled bottles at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon.

Television pictures showed several cars overturned and others smashed. Petrol bombs blazed on the ground and people ran from billowing clouds of teargas.

A hospital official said around 30 protesters and police needed treatment, while a police spokesman said 24 people were injured including nine police officers. He also said 24 people were detained during the demonstrations.

Riot police and paramilitary gendarmes backed by armored vehicles baton charged some 2,000 demonstrators in the Okmeydani area of Turkey's biggest city, about three km (two miles) west of the summit building, witnesses said.

A Reuters correspondent heard gunshots as police cleared dozens of protesters who tried to enter the central Taksim Square, one mile from the summit, a traditional target for demonstrators despite a ban on protests there.

Police said they had no information on any shooting but the left-wing party behind the protest said a police officer had fired warning shots into the air. The party said five of its members had been detained.

Riot police also broke up a crowd in the Mecidiyekoy area when they tried to march toward the summit about two miles to the south.

"Police used the gas immediately and dispersed the crowd as soon as they entered the square," said shop assistant Mehmet Ali. "It hurt my eyes a lot and we started to cough. We helped many people by giving them water," he said.

"NUKES OUT"

In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists dangling from a vast suspension bridge over the Bosphorus strait unfurled a 30-meter (yard) banner showing a dove of peace with a nuclear missile in its beak and the phrase "Nukes out of NATO."

"NATO is the world's largest military nuclear alliance. NATO is about 'keeping the peace' through a threat -- the threat of using nuclear weapons," the group said in a statement.
Turkish television later showed the banner fluttering down into the Bosphorus, which divides Europe and Asia. Anatolian news agency said 18 Greenpeace members were detained.

Turkish authorities have designated several places where demonstrators can protest legally against the summit and the presence in Turkey of President Bush, all of them far from the venue. Monday's protests were not authorized.

Protests in various Turkish cities at the weekend passed off with little trouble. Small bomb blasts last week in Ankara and Istanbul, which killed four people, put nerves on edge ahead of the summit. They were blamed on leftist groups.

(China Daily June 29, 2004)