IMC TV channel was raided by police who stopped broadcasts despite protests by staff in the studio, its own live pictures showed.

It was one of several media outlets ordered to be closed last week under the three-month state of emergency imposed days after the failed July coup.

Turkey on Monday extended the emergency for another 90 days from October 19.

Protesters were mainly from media outlets subject to a closure order as well and shouted: "IMC TV cannot be shut down" and "All together against fascism", AFP correspondents said.

Some carried placards saying: "Free press cannot be silenced" during the demonstration near Taksim Square.

There was a heavy police presence but officers did not intervene, an AFP photographer said.

Founded in 2011, IMC TV covered women's, leftist, environmental and Kurdish issues in Turkish but authorities claim it and 12 other television channels have links to groups deemed to threaten Turkey's national security interests.

Turkey's largest satellite operator had already taken it off air on the grounds of broadcasting "terrorist propaganda" but prior to the raid, it could be viewed on Hotbird satellite and internet broadcasts.

The channel is accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 30-year insurgency, mainly in the Kurdish southeast.

The pro-Kurdish channel has always denied being linked to any organisation.

Ankara has dismissed, detained or arrested tens of thousands of people in the military, the judiciary, police force and in education in a widescale purge.

Meanwhile more than 100 media outlets have been closed down while dozens of journalists have been detained or arrested.

Most of those are suspected of links with Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding the attempted putsch. He strongly denies the charges.

However, pro-Kurdish media outlets as well as thousands of teachers in the restive southeast have been shut down and dismissed respectively over suspected links to the PKK.

Activists accuse Ankara of using the emergency to crack down on opponents beyond those accused of plotting the putsch, while Ankara's Western allies have urged the country to act within the rule of law.