At least 60 dead, 754 people arrested across Turkey: official

ANKARA: At least 60 people have been killed and 754 detained in a night of violence across Turkey sparked when elements in the military staged an attempted coup, a Turkish official new agency said.

The majority of those killed were civilians and most of those detained are soldiers, said the official, without giving further details.

Dozens of soldiers backing the coup against the Turkish government on Saturday surrendered on the Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul that they had held throughout the night, television pictures showed.

The soldiers, dressed in full camouflage, walked out from behind their tank holding their hands above their heads, NTV television showed. The state-run Anadolu news agency said 50 soldiers were arrested.

Pictures showed supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan jubilantly jumping onto one of the tanks left behind by the departing soldiers, cheering, making victory signs and waving the Turkish flag.

Others sought to run across the bridge that had been closed all night, kicking the helmets and protective gear left behind by the rebel soldiers as they passed.

Turkey on Saturday appointed a new acting army chief of staff after an attempted coup to topple the government, the prime minister said.

General Umit Dundar, commander of the First Army, has been appointed as acting chairman of chief of staff, Binali Yildirim said. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said he did not know whereabouts of former army chief Hulusi Akar.

Early Saturday morning, troops filed into Taksim Square uncertain of how they would be received. Before long, angry crowds had gathered to denounce them.
In the famous square where anti-government protests took hold in 2013, a huge crowd chanted against the putsch, draped with Turkish flags across their shoulders.

"Military get out," they chanted, crowding around a monument that marks the birth of the Turkish republic almost a century ago.
"The people are afraid of a military government," said Dogan, 38. "Most of them have been in military service -- they know what a military government would mean."

There was horror as military helicopters fired at unarmed civilians.