Ankara , Turkey ( CNN ) -- A day after conflicting accounts over the death of a protester sparked clashes between security forces and demonstrators in several Turkish cities , Turkey 's interior minister insisted police played no role in the man 's fatal injuries . `` What happened in Hatay is a saddening event . I wish peace from God for our deceased citizen , '' Muammer Guler told journalists . He was referring to Ahmet Atakan , 22 , who died as a result of his injuries amid a predawn battle between demonstrators and riot police in the Turkish border province of Hatay on Tuesday . `` The investigation into the event was started immediately . However , as you also watched yesterday , footage emerged that shows there was no police intervention and that ( he ) fell from a high place . This is what the autopsy report says as well , '' Guler said . Turkish authorities in the province of Hatay have not responded to CNN requests to share Atakan 's official autopsy report . Meanwhile , eyewitnesses and family members of the dead protester have insisted that Atakan did not fall from a building . Rather , they told CNN , he was shot in the head at close range by a tear gas canister fired by a passing police armored personnel carrier . Since a wave of protests erupted over government plans to replace a park in Istanbul with a shopping mall last May , human rights groups have documented cases of a number of activists who were blinded , suffered brain damage , or remain in medically induced comas a result of tear gas canisters fired at their heads . But Turkish government officials have pointed to two videos to bolster the case that Atakan fell to his death Tuesday morning . One video from a camera aboard a police vehicle showed debris apparently being hurled from rooftops at the vehicle as it drove up Hatay 's Gunduz Street . For months , the area has been the site of nearly weekly clashes between demonstrators from Turkey 's Alawite religious minority and Turkish security forces . At one moment in the video , the body of a man tumbles off of a dark curb onto the street , apparently forcing the police vehicle to swerve . Later Tuesday , a second grainy video emerged on Turkish television that showed something that could have been a human body falling down the side of a building as police armored vehicles navigated Gunduz Street . It is not clear whether the interior minister 's statements or the two videos will persuade many critics of the Turkish government . At a funeral in Hatay on Tuesday , angry relatives , friends and neighbors chanted `` murderer police '' as they carried Atakan 's casket to a freshly dug grave . `` Erdogan 's dogs killed my son , '' screamed Atakan 's mother Emsal , in an interview with CNN . She was referring to Recep Tayyip Erdogan , Turkey 's prime minister . Atakan is the second man from his neighborhood -- and from the city of Hatay 's Alawite community -- to have died amid clashes with police . `` How he died does n't concern me , it 's just a detail , '' said Hasan Akgol , a member of parliament from the opposition Republican People 's Party in Hatay . `` The big picture is he died during a police intervention , '' he added in an interview with CNN . `` How many more young kids are going to be killed by this kind of stuff ? '' At least four other anti-government demonstrators -- all from Turkey 's Alawite and Alevi religious minorities -- have also died as a result of injuries received amid the anti-government unrest that has ebbed and waned across Turkey throughout the summer . `` No matter what happened , we know that there are ethnic-based provocations in Hatay , '' Interior Minister Guler told journalists Wednesday . Tear gas wafted through downtown Hatay late Tuesday night , after angry residents emerged from Atakan 's funeral to again clash with Turkish riot police on Gunduz Street . And on Tuesday night , Turkish riot police fired water cannons , plastic pellets and tear gas in Hatay province -- and in the cities of Ankara , Izmir and Istanbul -- to disperse angry protests that erupted in response to Atakan 's death .
Ahmet Atakan died from injuries amid anti-government protests in Hatay province Tuesday . Turkey 's interior minister : `` There was no police intervention '' and he `` fell from a high place '' but the death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers search for bodies of those killed during clashes.