It was a Friday afternoon in the middle of Turkey’s long summer holiday, but Emre, a 15-year-old boy studying at Istanbul’s oldest military high school, was sitting in a classroom to resit an exam he failed.

Hours later, chaos unfolded in the city’s streets when a rogue group of officers and generals attempted to stage a coup. Tanks rolled over the Bosphorus Bridge and low-flying jets roared over the streets.

Emre’s mother was worried sick; earlier in the day, she had received a call from the school informing her that her son had been invited to a “cocktail party” after his exam. She had heard nothing since.

At 4am, finally, her phone rang. “Mum,” said her son, “bad things are happening. They took away my phone. They made us wear uniforms and gave us empty guns. They told us to guard the school.”

Emre mentioned their commanders had fled the school before hanging up the phone. He was arrested shortly after, along with 62 of his fellow students at Kuleli Military School.

The students, aged between 14 and 17 years old, were made to dress up in camouflage and were handed guns with empty magazines, their lawyers say.