Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul late Friday to protest the arrest of the city's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, defying a warning from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey would not tolerate "street terrorism".

It was the third straight night that demonstrators had rallied against the arrest of Imamoglu -- Erdogan's biggest political rival -- in Turkey's biggest street protests in more than a decade.

Opposition leader Ozgur Ozel, head of the CHP which called the nationwide protests, told a vast crowd in front of Istanbul City Hall that "300,000 people" had joined the demonstration.

"This is not a CHP rally, the people here are from all parties and have come to show solidarity with Mayor Imamoglu and stand up for democracy," he told the vast gathering which punctuated his speech with cheering and applause.

Erdogan is "trying to twist Imamoglu's arm by using the judiciary as a weapon and take over this building. But we won't hand it over to a government-appointed trustee!" he........

© International Business Times