7 detained in Istanbul protest against gender violence

Istanbul: Seven people were detained during a protest in Istanbul organised by a leading womens rights group calling for an end to gender-based violence in Turkey, a media report said.

Police used pepper spray to break up the protest on Sunday organised by the Women's Assembly in the city's Kadikoy district after the group failed to comply with an order to disperse, the Ahval news site reported.

Two members of the Women's Assembly, General-Secretary Fidan Ataselim and representative Aysen Ece Kavas, were among the people detained in the protest, the group announced.

The protest was inspired by a demonstration against sexual violence in Chile last month that has since gone global, the assembly said.

The killing of a 20-year-old university student, who was stabbed to death by an escaped convict earlier this month in northern Turkey, has fuelled a long-standing discussion of femicide in the country.

Some 390 women have been murdered by men in Turkey since the start of this year, including 49 who lost their lives in November, according to femicide watchdog Anti-Sayac.