Amirulmukminin Amiruddin, an international relations student, described what he saw in a phone call with Star Online.

He lives near Istanbul police headquarters with three other Malaysians.

He said the Turkish public had driven heavy vehicles to police headquarters to strengthen the police barricade against the army.

“People just came. Bus drivers went to the police HQ with their buses and members of the public brought any big vehicle they could to help the police block military tanks from entering the police HQ,” he was quoted as saying. There were even cranes in the barricade.

He said the public were throwing stones at soldiers. “There were not many army personnel and the police managed to capture them and bring them into the police station,” he was quoted as saying.

The police station was secured by about 4.40am Istanbul time (9.40am in Malaysia), and police were asking the public to disperse, the report said.

Some members of the Turkish military attempted to seize power last night while Turkish president Recip Erdogan was on holiday at Marmaris, on the coast.

He returned to Istanbul after announcing “We will overcome this” in a video call by a mobile phone held up to the camera by an announcer on the Turkish sister station of CNN.