Police in Turkey’s capital have clashed with university students demonstrating in support of the Kurdish people in the country.

Some 100 pro-Kurdish students from the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) held the demonstration on Thursday.

The students, many of them wearing masks, sought to march toward the presidential palace to express opposition against military operations in Turkey’s Kurdish regions. 

Police, however, blocked the protesters at the university gates and used tear gas and water cannon to disperse them. The students responded by hurling stones and fireworks at security forces.

According to local media, police arrested six students, including two women.

The demonstration came hours after local media said Turkey had killed two dozen Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants in an operation in the country’s southeast.  

The operation in the towns of Silopi and Cizre in Sirnak Province, where curfews are in place, began earlier this week with the participation of some 10,000 security forces and tanks. 

New tensions come in the wake of a July bombing in a mainly Kurdish town close to the Syria border in which more than 30 people were killed.

After the bombing, PKK militants began attacking Turkish police and security forces for perceived failures in the bombing which Ankara blamed on Daesh.