Police use water cannon, tear gas on locals protesting against Syrian refugees in Turkey's Adana

Police intervened against a group of locals who had gathered in the southern province of Adana to demand the removal of Syrian refugees from their neighborhood, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Locals from Adana's Yüreğir district gathered in the Doğankent neighborhood to demand the removal of refugees' tents, lighting tires on fire and closing the streets with barricades at 10 p.m. on May 21.    

Police first demanded that the locals disperse before firing on them with water cannon, as locals responded with rocks.

Officers also fired into the air in an effort to disperse the group, but locals were able to regroup. Anti-terrorism police who were dispatched to the scene as reinforcements succeeded in dispersing the group with tear gas, while police also intervened some locals who escaped to side streets.   

Security measures were also tightened in the neighborhood against possible protests. A search was conducted against those who allegedly organized the protest. 

On May 16, over 300 people of Afghan and Syrian origin were evacuated from an Istanbul neighborhood amid rising tension after the killing of a local man by a foreign resident on May 14, Doğan News agency reported.

Ramazan Şahin, 24, was killed during a brawl between locals and migrants in the İsmetpaşa neighborhood of the Sultangazi district, after which riot police intervened with water cannon and tear gas against a group protesting the killing.