Turkey tightens controls in public places over virus threat

Turkey stepped up controls Saturday on crowded public spaces including markets and ferries in Istanbul, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed the use of face masks to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

The death toll in the country of 83 million people has now topped 500, according to official figures published on Saturday, while the number of cases has reached nearly 24,000 -- most of them in the economic capital Istanbul.

From Saturday, all those going out to shops or markets must wear a face mask, Erdogan said, calling on the population to maintain a distance of "three paces" from each other when outside.

At a bazaar in the Besiktas neighbourhood of Istanbul, police and local municipal employees were handing out masks and hand sanitisers, and checking the temperature of customers as they entered.

Vegetable seller Veli Yildirim, 50, said the measures came "too late".

"We are the latest compared to the rest of the world. Even this is not enough, there should be a complete lockdown," he told AFP.

A 60-year-old customer, Asuman Karaman, who was wearing a mask, agreed.

"If these measures had been taken one or two months earlier, maybe the virus would not have been so widespread."