Thousands of protesters joined May Day celebrations in Turkey on Friday, despite heavy police deployments in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, which was completely locked down, where nearly 400 people were arrested.

According to the ÇHD lawyers' association, which had deployed on the ground, in the early afternoon, "the number of people in custody stood at 370" in the megacity, where police used tear gas from riot vehicles in the middle of the crowd, AFP journalists observed.

The police intended to prevent them from reaching Taksim Square, a focal point of Istanbul protests, which has been closed to gatherings since 2013 and a wave of anti-government demonstrations.

A union official, Basaran Aksu, was arrested after denouncing the lockdown: "You can't close a square to the workers of Turkey. Everyone uses Taksim, for official ceremonies, celebrations. Only the workers, the laborers, the poor are having the square closed to them."

Images broadcast by the opposition channel HALK TV also showed the chairman of the Workers' Party of Türkiye, Erkan Bas, being drenched in a shower of pepper spray.

"The government already talks 365 days a year, so let the workers talk about the difficulties they face at least one day a year," he denounced.

Trade unions and associations had called for rallies under the slogan "Bread, Peace, Freedom", while official inflation still exceeds 30% - and even 40% in Istanbul according to the Chamber of Commerce - and the authorities regularly carry out waves of arrests in the ranks of the parliamentary opposition and the press.

From the beginning of the week, several dozen people had been taken into custody ahead of May 1st.

In Ankara, the hundred or so miners from a coal mine who had been on a nine-day hunger strike to demand payment of their wages were cheered as they joined the procession, which was particularly large and young and supervised by a significant police deployment, an AFP journalist observed.

As usual, Istanbul had been placed under lockdown from the middle of the night, the central districts of the European side entirely surrounded by metal barriers and the metro, bus and tram lines suspended.

Simultaneously, an authorized gathering on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, called by trade union confederations, brought together several thousand people peacefully, according to an AFP journalist and the press.