ANKARA, July 29. /TASS/. At least 18,000 people have been detained in Turkey over suspected involvement in an attempted coup, TRT television channel quoted Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala as saying on Friday.

"As of the present moment, 18,044 people have been detained, 9,677 of them have been arrested," the minister said, adding that 49,211 people had seen their passports annulled.

The minister said Turkey’s law-enforcement agencies would be reformed. "We will carry out structural reforms that will make a coup impossible in this country," he said.

Besides, the interior minister confirmed plans to close Akinci Air Base outside Ankara, saying it was not needed.

A group of insurgents took an abortive coup attempt in Turkey late on July 16. The main confrontation took place in Ankara and Istanbul.

The country’s leaders announced later that the coup attempt had been thwarted.

According to the latest reports, 246 people, the putsch members excluded, died and more than 2,000 were injured.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in Turkey for three months.