Turkish police clashed with civil servants who went on strike and took to the streets in a protest of low wages in the Turkish capital Wednesday, Turkish media reported.

Clashes erupted when police blocked a group of protestors proceeding to an overpass near the Ziya Gokalp Street in downtown Ankara, where thousands of public sector workers were staging a rally as part of a nationwide demonstration, the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News reported on its website.

Tensions mounted when the police used tear gas against the group and some passersby were also exposed to the tear gas, said the report.

It said organizers then persuaded the demonstrators to stop marching to the overpass, without mentioning any casualties.

After failing to reach a compromise during collective bargaining talks with the government in August, civil servants from sectors of education, health, transportation, energy, mining and communications launched a one-day national strike on Wednesday.

The move disrupted public transportation, shut down post offices and forced hospitals to take emergency cases only.

Civil servant unions blamed the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for lacking response to their social and economic demands and warned they would engage in an even larger-scale struggle if the government does not take their voices seriously.

The government only granted an annual wage increase of 5 percent for public sector workers while the cost of necessities, such as bread, natural gas and electricity, doubled, the newspaper quoted union members as saying during the rally.

The protestors also hit out at rising unemployment, high taxes and a favor of the wealthy in government policies, holding banners of "We have nothing to lose, except our chains," according to the report.

"It is the AKP itself that has brought us to this point. It has ignored public servants," said Emirali Simsek, secretary general of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Union.

Huseyin Celik, deputy leader of the AKP, refuted the demonstrators' demands, saying they had no right to turn citizens' daily lives into pains.

"It doesn't fit with the understanding of public servant unions to make the trains stop and halt health services," Celik told a press conference, adding "The move doesn't reflect goodwill."