Members of the Turkish police special forces stand guard at the police headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 143 people over suspected links to Islamic State in anti-terror operations in eight cities over the weekend, the state-run Anadolu Agency said on Sunday.

Counter-terrorism police detained 49 foreign nationals on Saturday during operations in the capital Ankara, Anadolu said. Some of the detained were believed to be preparing for an attack on Oct. 29, Turkey’s Republic Day.

The police raided houses in Bursa, a northwestern province of Turkey, and detained 39 people including 28 Syrian nationals and two Azerbaijani nationals on Sunday, Anadolu said. Eight of the detained suspects were minors, it said.

On Sunday morning, police detained 22 people in the northeastern province of Erzurum as part of an investigation into terrorist organizations. The detained included suspected senior members of the organizations, Anadolu said.

Police also detained 33 suspects in five other cities including Istanbul and Izmir as part of anti-terror operations over the weekend, Anadolu said.

Police confiscated several weapons, ammunition, digital data and documents during the operations, it said.