8.48am BST

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the protests in Turkey.

• Hundreds of demonstrators have returned to Istanbul’s Taksim Square following a police raid on Tuesday night. Early this morning they chanted, sang and played football after a peaceful night. A concert pianist played a grand piano in the middle of the square last night, and riot police looked on from the side. But there were mixed messages from Turkey’s governing Justice and Development party (AKP) about its possible responses to the protests.

• Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, warned the demonstrators – who have occupied areas of central Istanbul for two weeks – that their protests would be over in 24 hours. Erdoğan’s ultimatum ratcheted up tensions after a relatively calm day yesterday following Tuesday night’s police raid, which this video shows. The police attack cleared the square of protesters, but hundreds remained in nearby Gezi Park. Erdoğan said:

We have not responded to punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently. This issue will be over in 24 hours.

Police attack protesters in Taksim Square with tear gas on Tuesday night. Source: Huseyin Caglayan

• But the deputy chairman of the AKP, Hüseyin Çelik, suggested that the problem could be resolved by a city-wide referendum on the issue that sparked the protests: plans to demolish Gezi Park and replace it with a shopping mall and a replica of an old military barracks. The demonstrations have since snowballed into an unprecedented nationwide display of anger at Erdoğan’s increasingly authoritarian and Islamist style. But Çelik added that the protesters should now withdraw from the park, saying: "Those with bad intentions or who seek to provoke and remain in the park will [now] be facing the police.” Some newspapers depicted the referendum plan as the answer to the protests: "The way out is a referendum,” said the pro-government Star in a front page headline, while Cumhuriyet, which is critical of Erdoğan, went with: “Referendum game.”

• President Abdullah Gül has struck a more conciliatory tone than Erdoğan, saying: "If people have objections ... then to engage in a dialogue with these people, to hear out what they say, is no doubt our duty.” But he added: "Those who employ violence are something different and we have to distinguish them. This would not be allowed in New York, this would not be allowed in Berlin."

• The EU voiced its support for the protesters, saying they had been largely peaceful and had been subjected to indiscriminate violence from riot police. It demanded an investigation of the authorities' extreme reaction, and called on Erdoğan to cancel big AKP rallies scheduled for this weekend. Lady Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said: "There is a real polarisation of opinion. Major AKP rallies in Istanbul and Ankara this weekend would risk adding to the tension when we need to see a de-escalation.” David Cameron, the British prime minister, said the clashes were “disturbing and concerning”. Three or four people have been killed – reports differ – in the two weeks of protests, and a reported 5,000 injured. Erdoğan has accused foreign forces, international media and market speculators of stoking the conflict.

We’ll have live coverage of all developments here throughout the day.