Footage showing student hit by police gas canister draws reactions

ANKARA

Footage showing a student being hit by a tear gas canister fired by police in Ankara has raised eyebrows in Turkey. The footage was shot by a security camera during March protests in the capital after the death of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan, who was first injured during the Gezi Park protests last June.

Following a complaint by the student, identified only as A.U., footage of the incident went public as a part of a wider investigation launched by the Ankara’s Prosecutor’s Office in an attempt to identify the responsible police officers.

A.U. was reportedly walking towards a bus stop after having left the city’s Sakarya Avenue, when he was suddenly hit directly in the head during a police intervention against protesters on March 11, the day Elvan died.

He sheltered himself in a nearby workplace after being injured, and was then taken to hospital.

The footage backs up A.U.’s account of the incident.

The student claimed that he did not perform well in the first round of the university entrance exams as the incident was still affecting him.

Berkin Elvan died after having spent 269 days in a coma due to head injuries inflicted after he was hit in the head by a tear gas canister on June 16, 2013 near his house in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood.