Battles as Daewoo re-opens main car plant

Hundreds of workers and students hurled petrol bombs and rocks at South Korean riot police today in protest at the layoff of 1,751 staff by the ailing Daewoo car company.

Fighting broke out shortly after Daewoo reopened its main plant in Bupyong, 18 miles west of Seoul. The plant was shut down for 20 days.

"Scrap layoffs", the 1,500 workers shouted as they tried to march into the streets after a two-hour rally at a university.

A few hundred workers, many wearing surgical masks to hide their identity, clashed with about 1,000 riot police.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.

Earlier in the day, police detained 200 protesters who tried to block dozens of buses carrying Daewoo workers to the plant.

Several gathering points for workers were designated to prevent protesters from getting into the assembly lines.

Daewoo, South Korea’s third-largest car maker, shut down the plant last month citing a growing inventory of unsold vehicles, but its union denounced the closure as an attempt to thwart protests by laid-off workers.

The company has been surviving under court receivership a process under which all debts were frozen and new management was installed since it filed for bankruptcy in November with estimated debts of at least £7bn.