A fight between left-wing and right-wing students at Istanbul University on Friday ended with 47 detentions by police.

The central campus of the city's oldest university in Istanbul's Beyazıt district saw students from both sides engaging in a clash with knives and fists. Riot police was deployed to the site after another incident on Thursday and intervened in the fight.

Tight security measures were imposed on the campus after the clash while another group protesting the detention was attacked by students hurling stones and bottles.

A well-established institution, the university was home to clashes between left-wing and right-wing students in the 1960s and 70s during a turbulent period in Turkey that saw two major military coups.

Last year, student groups supporting the PKK terrorist organization and a group of ultra-nationalist students were engaged in violent clashes.

Like last year's case, police found meat cleavers and long knives in possession of fighting students though it is not known how they managed to bring them into the campus where strict security is in place.