Turkey: Hundreds protest as woman stabbed and burned 'after resisting rape attempt'

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Turkey to protest over a woman who was found dead after she had allegedly resisted a rape attempt.

Women's rights activists gathered in the capital Istanbul and other cities at the weekend, chanting slogans such as "You will never walk alone!", AFP reported.

The outcry was sparked after the burnt and mutilated body of 20-year-old Ozgecan Aslan was recovered by police in a riverbed in the city of Mersin, three days after she went missing.

Aslan was last seen boarding a bus, whose driver was later arrested along with two other suspects.

The driver admitted to stabbing Aslan.

Investigators believe the man had also tried to rape her before killing her and that Aslan retaliated by pepper spraying him. He then stabbed her to death.

It is believed the driver was helped by his father and a friend to hide her body.

The murder evoked anger with activists demanding justice as hundreds of Turkish women are killed every year.

People also engaged in an online protest with women sharing their experiences of violence under the hashtag #Sendeanlat (tell your story).

As well as attacks from strangers, domestic violence is a serious threat for women in Turkey, where a recent report by the Happy Kids Association showed that 34% of men find violence "occasionally necessary", while 28% said violence could be used to discipline women.

In 2011, Turkey's justice ministry warned that there had been a 1,400% increase in the number of cases of violence against women since 2002, when at least 66 women were killed.