ISTANBUL • Turkish prosecutors yesterday ordered the arrest of nearly 700 people, including military and Justice Ministry personnel, state media said, intensifying moves against a network accused of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

The authorities have carried out a sustained crackdown on alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen since the failed bid in July 2016, in which about 250 people were killed. The police still routinely carry out raids targeting suspects.

The latest operations marked an escalation by the police against alleged supporters of Mr Gulen, a one-time ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who became his arch foe.

Mr Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania in the United States since 1999, has denied any involvement in the attempted coup.

In the latest moves, prosecutors ordered the arrest of 157 people, including 101 serving officers, in an investigation of the Turkish Armed Forces, said the state-owned Anadolu news agency. About 100 people have been detained in this operation so far, the private Demiroren news agency reported.

In the capital Ankara, 71 people were to be detained in an investigation targeting alleged Gulen supporters in the Justice Ministry, Anadolu said.

It subsequently reported that prosecutors had issued arrest warrants for another 467 suspects across the country over links to Mr Gulen as part of an investigation into corruption in police examinations held in 2009.

Mr Erdogan has, for years, accused Mr Gulen's supporters of establishing a "parallel state" by infiltrating the police, judiciary and other state institutions.

Since the coup attempt, about 80,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs.

Turkey's Western allies and rights groups have criticised the scale of the crackdown, while Ankara has defended the measures as a necessary response to the security threat.

REUTERS