Fresh violence erupted Saturday over a labor crackdown by the South Korean government at the failed Daewoo Motor, with hundreds of workers and radical students joining forces to battle riot police.
Some 3,000 protestors battled with hundreds of riot police in the streets near Inchon Teachers' College after they were prevented from heading toward Daewoo Motor plant, more than a kilometers (mile) away.
The demonstrators occupied an intersection and made bonfires with used tires, while pelting the police troops carrying shields with fragments of pavement bricks.
Before the clash, police grabbed dozens of firebombs from student radicals.
Daewoo Motor workers and students have been staging violent protests in the western city after thousands of riot police stormed the company premises and ended a sit-in by workers protesting against lay-offs.
The company dismissed another 1,750 workers last week, shedding a total of 6,884 employees, a third of its domestic workforce.
The automaker, which has been in crisis since the collapse of the Daewoo Group in August 1999 with 80 billion dollars of debt, has been undergoing corporate restructuring.
The South Korean government urged General Motors Corp. back to takeover talks for Daewoo Motor after the labor crackdown -- INCHON, South Korea (AFP)
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