Turkish police have arrested two teachers who are on hunger strike over their dismissal in a state purge.
Turkish police have arrested two teachers who have been on hunger strike for more than two months protesting against a government crackdown in which they lost their jobs following last year's failed coup.
CNN Turk said two lawyers who attempted to obstruct the police were also detained and police searched properties in the overnight raids. There was no immediate comment from police.
Literature professor Nuriye Gulmen and primary school teacher Semih Ozakca have been on hunger strike for more than 10 weeks after losing their jobs following the failed July coup against President Tayyip Erdogan.
They have held demonstrations in central Ankara to highlight their plight, and that of around 150,000 state employees who were suspended or sacked after the failed putsch, which Erdogan blames on followers of a US-based cleric.
Gulmen wrote on her Twitter account overnight: "Political department police are trying to enter the house. They are now breaking the door".
"Damn fascism! Long live our hunger strike resistance! We want our jobs back! We have not and will not surrender!" she wrote.
Necati Yilmaz, a lawmaker from the main opposition CHP party, wrote on Twitter that the reason for their detention was "the possibility that their protests could turn into death fasts and new Gezi protests".
He was referring to large anti-government demonstrations four years ago, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest a plan to build a replica Ottoman barracks on Gezi park in central Istanbul.
A lawyer, Selcuk Kozagacli, wrote on Twitter that police had detained the two hunger strikers and that they were tired but well, although they "were knocked about quite a bit".
Gulmen and Ozakca, surviving on a liquid diet of lemon and saltwater and sugar solutions, have lost weight during their protest.
