Thousands of protesters have controlled Istanbul’s main square once more after two days of violent clashes with rampaging riot police, as Turkey’s prime minister vowed to press on with the controversial redevelopment that provoked the clashes.

Calling the protesters an “extremist fringe”, Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the opposition Republican People’s party for provoking the protests.

“We think that the main opposition party, which is making resistance calls on every street, is provoking these protests,” Erdogan said on Turkish television, as an estimated 10,000 demonstrators streamed into the area waving flags and calling on the government to resign.

“There is now a menace which is called Twitter,” Erdogan said. “The best examples of lies can be found there. To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”

Protesters again clashed with riot police into the early hours of Monday, Reuters reported.

In the western port of Izmir, protesters threw fire bombs at the offices of the ruling AK party and television footage showed part of the building ablaze.

Bus shelters, paving stones and street signs were ripped up by protesters to make barricades that littered a major avenue in Istanbul where some of the heaviest clashes took place on Sunday night, Reuters said.

Roads around Erdogan’s office in Istanbul were sealed off in the early hours of Monday. In the main street near the office, one demonstrator drove a small mechanical digger towards police lines as other protesters followed.

Police raided a shopping complex in the centre of the capital Ankara where they believed demonstrators were sheltering, detaining several hundred, Reuters said.

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