Backlash as police storm Gezi Park Under pressure: A protester is sprayed by police water cannon during a demonstration at Kizilay Square in central Ankara on Sunday. After 18 days of anti-government demonstrations that presented a broad rebuke to the country's leadership, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered riot police to storm the centre of the protest movement in Gezi Park on Saturday evening, setting off a night of chaos in downtown Istanbul. Within hours, thousands began streaming downtown to protest the crackdown, setting bonfires on the city's main boulevard as tear gas wafted throughout streets normally bustling on a Saturday night. Officials said at least 44 people had been hurt in the mayhem - the worst since the protests began - but their counts are often low. The crackdown came a day after it appeared Erdogan may have outflanked protesters, whose complaints against the destruction of Gezi Park for an Ottoman-themed mall grew into broader anger. Mr Erdogan was initially defiant, but last week tried to halt the broader movement against him by offering a compromise on the razing of the park. He won over protest organisers, but they struggled to bring along the rank-and-file demonstrators. Then, as the organisers continued to try to work for a peaceful solution, he appeared to lose patience, sending in the police. The brutality of the police assault set off new demonstrations in Istanbul, and the capital, Ankara, and appeared to harden the resolve of the core protesters. In the early hours of Sunday morning, the police were chasing protesters in the streets in Istanbul, firing tear gas, water cannons and, according to many demonstrators, rubber bullets.