ISTANBUL — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Istanbul on Thursday in May Day rallies, confronting riot police officers to protest a government mired in a corruption scandal and accused of imposing a creeping authoritarianism in Turkey.

The police fired tear gas, used water cannons and shut down main streets to disperse hundreds of protesters seeking to challenge a government ban on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square, also the scene of antigovernment protests last summer against the administration of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

More than 140 people were detained and 90 people, including 19 police officers, were injured in clashes that continued in the main and back streets of central Istanbul until early afternoon, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.