The suspensions followed Monday’s purge targeting other ministries and state institutions.

The employees include 9,000 police, 2,745 judges, 8,777 from the interior ministry 1,500 from the finance ministry, 257 staff working at the prime minister’s office, at least 100 from the National Intelligence Agency MIT, 399 from the family and social affairs ministry and 492 from the religious affairs ministry.

Officials signalled that the country was to undergo further major changes in the coming days. Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister, cancelled his visit to Washington to attend a National Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Erdogan said he would issue an “important announcement” following the meeting.

There was speculation that Mr Erdogan might try to put in place a state of emergency to take full control of all state institutions.

“The focus tomorrow will be on how we can deal with the Gulenist terror organisation in a more effective way. The current way does not work. There are some laws that don’t allow us to deal with this properly and we’ll discuss that,” an advisor to Mr Yildirim said.

It also emerged on Tuesday that the military received intelligence that rogue elements of the army were embarking on a coup more than six hours before before hijacked tanks took to the streets and rebel-piloted F-16s bombed key buildings in the capital. The delay raises questions about why quicker action was not taken to interrupt the plot.