Turkey extends emergency for 90 days

Turkey will maintain the state of emergency imposed in the wake of July's failed coup for another three months starting from October 19, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said yesterday.

"The state of emergency will be extended for another 90 days starting October 19," Kurtulmus told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.

The government has launched a vast crackdown to hunt down suspects in the failed putsch, blamed by authorities on US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied he was involved in the coup bid.