A STUDENT from the region caught up in the anti-government protests in Turkey was chased by riot police for videoing the clashes.

Melisa Kenber, 19, who lives just outside Ripon, North Yorkshire, was visiting family in Istanbul last week.

While there, tensions grew until they sparked the biggest anti-government disturbances in the country for many years.

Melisa said she noticed tensions were mounting in the days leading up to the protests.

Many had become increasingly frustrated at attempts by Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan to force conservative, Islamic views on the everyday lives of secular Turks.

There was also increasing resentment at large-scale building across the country of developments such as shopping malls.

Events came to a head during a peaceful protest over plans to cut down trees in the city’s Taksim Square to make way for a shopping centre.

Just before dawn on Friday, police used tear gas on the demonstrators, leading to huge riots.

Speaking from her North Yorkshire home today (Tuesday, June 4) she said: “I go to Istanbul every year but this time I went, before it all kicked off, I had never heard people so frustrated and angry and complain about the government.

“It was like a bomb waiting to go off. The final straw was at Taksim Square.

“There were thousands of people there, listening to bands and talking, it was a really nice atmosphere.

“But just before dawn police arrived with canisters of gas and water bombs.”

Melisa, who is due to study medicine at Leeds University in September, said she heard accounts of what happened from family living nearby.

But she saw events for herself when she was caught up in clashes trying to reach the airport to return to the UK on Saturday morning.

“The police cut off all the roads around the rioting and we had to turn round and go the other way," she said.

“I decided to get out of the car and there was tear gas everywhere. I ran up to the square and there were hundreds of police buses. There were burnt advertising boards on the building sites and rubble and broken glass everywhere.

“The police had completely blocked off the park so nobody could leave.

“I decided to video the policemen and they started shouting, “No pictures, no pictures.”

And then they started chasing me. I just ran off and got straight back in the car. My eyes were so red and tears were streaming down my face from the gas.”

Turkey's deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc today offered an apology for the violent crackdown on an enviornmental protest, in a bid to appease the days of anti-government rallies as hundreds of riot police depolyed around the prime minister's office in the capital.

The Turkish Human Rights Association said 3,300 people nationwide were detained during the four days of protests. At least 1,300 people were injured and a 22-year-old man died during a protest.

Mr Aric described the crackdown as "wrong and unjust" but Mr Erdogan, who is out of the country, has previously described protestors as "looters" and dismissed the prostests as acts by fringe extremists.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said they were advising British nationals to avoid all demonstrations.