Riot police clash with Indian workers

NEW DELHI, Tuesday (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed "anguish" after hundreds of workers at a Japanese automobile factory were reported injured during a brutal clash with riot police.

Television networks showed live the beating of cowering workers outside their factory by swarms of riot policemen in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, where several multinational companies have set up manufacturing bases.

"The prime minister has asked for information and expressed his deep anguish," said Singh's spokesman Sanjaya Baru.

"He has also asked for action against those who are guilty," Baru said. Television reporters at the cordoned-off site said Gurgaon hospitals were packed with bleeding workers from the Indian subsidiary of Japanese car-maker Honda.

Several privately-run television stations said an estimated 700 workers were injured, some seriously, but it was not possible to get any immediate independent confirmation of the numbers involved.

The incident reportedly erupted after workers in a show of solidarity with some 30 sacked colleagues violated a police restriction on processions and tried to block a highway and then attacked a small police contingent